The French Development Agency has decided to provide Bangladesh with €150 million – nearly Tk1,507 crore – as a concessional loan in support of the country's Covid-19 response and cash transfer programs.
The executive board of the agency recently approved the loan, the French Embassy in Dhaka said on Thursday.
The loan will contribute towards the World Bank-supported cash transfer modernization project, which seeks to improve the transparency and efficiency of selected cash transfer programs for vulnerable populations by modernizing service delivery.
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It will also support the government efforts to address the social and economic consequences of the Covid-19 epidemic.
The project will be co-financed by the French agency and the World Bank as a lead partner.
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It will have three components: enhancement of cash transfer programs, which incentivizes actions towards improving the business processes under selected cash transfer programs; modernization of service delivery, which provides technical assistance to support the enhancements of technology assets, utilize integrated information systems for targeting and payment, improve citizen engagement, and strengthen the capacity of human resources; and contingent emergency response (CER) to allow project financing to be mobilized rapidly in response to a natural or human-induced shock, disaster or crisis.
The CER component will support the government’s response to the Covid-19 crisis.
