An SQL Adventure into the World Bank Data!

The World Bank one global financial organization. Its main objective is to assist developing nations’ sustainable economic development and to lessen poverty. It offers financial and technical support for a range of programs and initiatives that are intended to enhance these countries’ infrastructure, healthcare, education, agriculture, and other important sectors. The ultimate goal is to assist nations in achieving inclusive, sustainable economic growth, job creation, and raising the living standards of their populations.

I spent a number of years working in the DeFi industry. During my time there, I picked up a lot of knowledge regarding loans and creditworthiness. I make an effort to keep up with current affairs. Having limited knowledge about the World Bank and its objectives, I chose to conduct some research to hone my SQL skills. 💡 I wanted to respond to these queries:

1. What is the total number of transactions?
2. What’s the most that can be paid to the IDA?
3. What loan was the most recent to be paid off?
4. Who has the most loans?
5. How much money is owed to the IDA in total?

Key Findings:

• The maximum amount owed to the IDA is almost $800 million
• The total amount owed to the IDA is over $20 trillion
• The average service rate is 0.78
• India owes the largest amount
• Mozambique owes the least

The World Bank provided the dataset that I used. They virtually always update their information. Their website offers a large number of datasets for download. You can check them out here.
I used a website called csvfiddle.io to evaluate the data. It eliminates the need for users to download the MySQL program to their computer in order to execute SQL queries in a browser.

The World Bank is comprised of 5 closely related institutions.

1. International Bank for Reconstructions and Development (IBRD): Often referred to as the World Bank, it offers middle-income and creditworthy low-income nations financial and technical support. It provides credits and loans on advantageous terms to fund development-oriented projects.
2. International Development Association (IDA): The International Development Association (IDA) is dedicated to offering grants and concessional loans to the world’s poorest nations, where the borrowers may not have the financial means to get regular loans from the IBRD.
3. International Finance Corporation (IFC): The IFC supports the development of the private sector in developing nations by offering investment and consulting services to companies, encouraging entrepreneurship, and supporting sustainable private sector growth.
4. Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA): To promote foreign direct investment in developing nations and reduce risks for firms and investors, MIGA provides credit enhancement and political risk insurance.
5. International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID): For the purpose of settling investment disputes between international investors and member nations, ICSID offers a platform.

The member nations of the World Bank, who are also its shareholders, oversee the organization. The voting power of member nations, which is established by their monetary contributions and capital subscriptions to the bank, is the basis for decision-making within the organization. The largest stakeholder is the United States, followed by other nations with sizable economies.
When it comes to bringing money, knowledge, and experience together to tackle urgent development issues like poverty, infrastructural deficiencies, and environmental sustainability, the World Bank is a vital player. Through advancing economic stability and advancement in developing nations, it seeks to cultivate a more wealthy and just international community.

The Deep Dive: The dataset contains more than 1.1 million rows, indicating that more than 1.1 million transactions have been done using the IDA. Because the dataset is so big, I had to apply a LIMIT to several of the queries to control how much was returned.

The total due to the IDA is well over 20 trillion US dollars.

Nicaragua has 13,704 transactions that still have an outstanding balance.

SQL query for max due

The maximum amount due is ~800 billion and is owed by India. The 5 countries who owe the most to the IDA are India, Kenya, Nigeria, Pakistan, and Ethiopia.

The average service charge rate is 0.78. It’s important to note that the service charge rate can vary over time and might differ for different types of loans and financial products offered by the World Bank. Additionally, the World Bank periodically reviews and adjusts its service charge rate to align with its financial situation and development objectives.

SQL query for Min due to IDA

The country who owes the least is Mozambique with -5.37, followed by Guinea, Congo, Guinea-Bissau, and Tanzania.

The SQL commands I used while working on this project are:

✅ SELECT ✅ FROM ✅ MAX ✅ MIN

✅ OR ✅ AS. ✅ COUNT ✅ SUM. ✅ AVG

I want to continue working with this dataset. Starting to work with SQL was fun. Lives are being changed and economies are being strengthened by the World Bank and its organizations. I’d like to learn more about the goals of some of the specific projects that the IDA has lent money to, as well as how these initiatives have helped the recipient nation. While many countries have managed to pay off their loans, numerous loans remain outstanding. Organizations that assist developing nations in becoming self-sufficient and imparting skills are essential from both a sustainability and humanitarian perspective.

Please connect with me, give me some claps and leave a comment if you enjoyed this post. 👇🏻
Please send me an email at brinoekanem@gmail.com as I am also looking for a junior data analyst position. Thank you.