Bangladesh has signed a $ 500million loan agreement with the World Bank for a major safety net project that the global lender claims will benefit four million poorest households.
Economic Relations Division Secretary Md Abul Kalam Azad and the World Bank Bangladesh Office acting head Christine Kimes signed the agreement at the former’s office on Friday.
The loan carries 0.75 percent service charge with 40 years to maturity, including a 10-year grace period.
The project titled ‘Safety Net Systems for the Poorest (SNSP)’ aims to support efforts to improve the implementation of safety net programmes by allocating more resources.
The Ministry of Disaster Management and Relief will implement the project that plans to also strengthen the management and monitoring capacity of social safety net programmes and enhance governance and accountability.
The World Bank said the project would also provide technical assistance to the Statistics and Informatics Division for the development of the Bangladesh Poverty Database.
The database is expected to reduce the overall costs and errors related to the safety net programmes in Bangladesh and facilitate coordination among the ministries responsible for their implementation, it said in a media release.
Source: bdnews24
