DEVELOPMENT NEWS
Fostering human capital in Burkina Faso
T he OPEC Fund is providing a US$30 million loan to Burkina Faso that will provide essential services such as free healthcare, cover hospital operating costs and distribute routine vaccines. The program will also organize exams, provide teacher training and equip educators with pedagogical kits. Additional support by the World Bank in the form of a US$100 million loan will provide for the immunization of 1 million children under five years old. Another 17 million free health care consultations are planned and more than 91,000 teachers and 700,000 students are also expected to benefit.
T he OPEC Fund is providing a US$35 million loan to state-owned Asakabank, which supports on-lending to food security and climate action projects in Uzbekistan. The operation will help increase access to finance for the agriculture sector and climate action projects throughout the country. Additionally, the project supports the government’s objective to mobilize capital investments in the banking sector. As the agriculture sector accounts for 25 percent of the country’s GDP and employs 25 percent of the total workforce, financing this area is essential to ensure food security, especially considering the threat extreme weather events have on Uzbekistan’s production of cotton and wheat. Supporting food security and climate action in Uzbekistan
Photo: Luca Prestia/Shutterstock
Improving connectivity in Malawi
Strengthening Bangladesh’s fiscal management and governance A US$96.1 million OPEC Fund loan to Bangladesh will support the government’s efforts to enact a series
A US$20 million OPEC Fund loan several cities in southern Malawi by upgrading a crumbling single-lane road will co-finance a safer route linking to a paved, two-lane road. The new 36-km section will improve travel safety, reduce transportation times and improve access to local markets. Co-financed with the Saudi Fund for Development the project fits with the government’s development agenda to improve the transportation sector across the southeastern African nation.
of reforms that focus on domestic resource mobilization, providing an enabling business environment and diversifying exports. Co-financed with the Asian Development Bank the program targets three reform areas: a) strengthening revenue-based fiscal consolidation, b) improving state- owned enterprise governance and streamlining the private sector regulatory environment, and c) strengthening trade policy, supply chains and logistics.
The OPEC Fund loan to Bangladesh of US$96 million will help to diversify exports
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