We invest to improve economic opportunities for people. This includes helping create more and better jobs, which provide greater security for individuals and families. Our investments also aim to build a thriving private sector that can generate the tax receipts governments need to build infrastructure and provide public services.
As a responsible investor, we ensure job quality in line with the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the IFC Performance Standards, which cover the working conditions, wages, and health and safety of employees.
In 2024, our portfolio of businesses provided direct jobs for 1,024,290 people (in full-time equivalents). Of these, 357,810 are employed by businesses we back directly and 666,480 are employed by companies within the investment funds we have backed. The net increase in jobs in our portfolio was 82,410.
In addition, projects in our portfolio supported 6,865 temporary construction workers involved in building new assets.
Of the firms supported, 56 per cent are SMEs (under 300 employees) and 24 per cent are small businesses (under 50 employees).
The rate of job growth in our portfolio in 2024 was 8.7 per cent, compared with a background growth rate of 2.7 per cent, according to ILO statistics. The 2024 job growth within the portfolio comes primarily from growth in Asia (16 per cent) due to significant growth in financial services and industrial investees. Growth in the African part of our portfolio is lower (2 per cent), slightly below the ILO statistics for the region. Over the past five years, the businesses we invest in have grown their workforces annually by an average of 5.8 per cent. This compares with an average growth rate of 2.6 per cent for all employees in Africa, Asia and the Caribbean, according to ILO statistics.
By improving access to electricity and finance, as well as supporting local wages and supply chains, the investments we make indirectly support many more businesses and livelihoods.
In 2024, the power produced and transmitted by our portfolio of power companies to businesses across our geographies indirectly supported an estimated 864,000 workers. This has fallen slightly compared with 2023, due to the reduction in power production.
We estimate the credit that BII-backed financial institutions offer to businesses supports as many as 5 million workers across the economies of Africa and South Asia – in both the borrowing companies and their supply chains. This is down slightly compared with 2023, again driven by trends in the gross loans.
We know that wages spent by workers on local consumption support economic activity. We estimate that local spending of wages supported over 3 million jobs. Finally, we estimate that the supply chain purchasing of our portfolio companies indirectly supported 2.5 million workers in the wider economy. This is up 1 per cent driven by growth within our investees.
We know that the indirect impacts of business operations can be significantly greater than their direct impacts, generating value in the economy by supporting additional employment. To help investors understand these indirect effects, we worked with other DFIs and researchers to produce the Joint Impact Model. You can find further information at: jointimpactmodel.org
The indirect job numbers in this report are all estimated using that model. In our results, we don’t attribute the increase in job numbers in our portfolio to ourselves – they are the total of what happens at the companies and projects where BII is one investor. This is because the results are largely due to the hard work and successes of the teams at our portfolio companies; our capital and know-how are only two reasons among many for their success.
In 2024, our portfolio businesses reported tax payments of $2.5 billion. This has risen slightly, driven by improved earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) within our investees. This provides a tax base for governments to invest in social infrastructure and public goods.
By improving access to electricity and finance, as well as supporting local wages and supply chains, the investments we make indirectly support many more businesses and livelihoods.”