WB to provide $ 600m loan for Bangladesh rural power

Bangladesh will receive a US$600-million loan from the World Bank (WB) in order to improve electricity supplies to rural areas, in order to reduce poverty and create jobs, the mulitlateral lender said in a statement on Saturday.

The loan was approved by the World Bank’s board a day earlier.

wbThe credits from the International Development Association (IDA), the World Bank’s concessionary arm, have 40 years to maturity with a 10-year grace period and carry a service charge of 0.75 per cent.

Mohammad Saiful Islam, a director of the Bangladesh Power Development Board, told Reuters; “The project will contribute to improving the quality and reliability of power supplies to 25 million people in rural Bangladesh.”

Around 80 per cent of Bangladesh’s 160 million people live in rural areas.

The World Bank estimated that nearly 75 million of them lacked access to electricity.


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