PESHAWAR – The World Bank has approved a $400 million IDA soft loan tosupport Pakistan in accelerating investments in education and healthsectors in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province.

The loan will help staff and budget issues in the education and healthsectors. SPEED, Spending Effectively for Enhanced Development, the programwill help the local government strengthen its management of publicresources and fiscal planning to sustain human capital investments ineducation and healthcare services.

The amount will also contribute to increase the quality of schools andhealth centers and remove obstacles in education and health services in theregion. It will also improve the predictability of resources to provideaccess to medicine in primary healthcare facilities, including maternal andneonatal clinics for women across the province while it increases theavailability of teaching staff in at least half of schools in the province.

The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government has already taken $33 billionin loans and 75 percent of these loans were meant for budget support andbalance of payments, like this program.

Earlier in 2020, Pakistan paid Rs2.3 trillion in principal and interest toforeign creditors, which was almost twice the amount spent on developmentby the federal and provincial governments.

Meanwhile, the finance minister stated that the continued support of theWorld Bank, as a major development partner, was critical to attainingfiscal consolidation, improved service delivery and good governance inPakistan.