KABUL (SW): A contract worth $691 million was signed between the World Bank and the government of Afghanistan today (Tuesday) in Kabul.
The Minister of Finance, Eklil Ahmad Hakimi said, out of the total of $691 million World Bank’s funding that Afghanistan does not have to pay back to World Bank, $600 million will be provided to the Ministry of Public Health for the provision of health services and $51 million will be provided to the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology to complete the fiber optics project parallel to the CASA 1000 project.
The Ministry of Finance informed that the remaining $40 million will be provided to government banks to spend on raising the capacity and providing microfinance loans to farmers, providing mortgages for home loans, and providing loans to industries.
Shahzad Gul Aryobee, Minister of Communications and Information Technology said the $51 million assistance from World Bank is a major step in the development of the fiber optic network which will bring high-quality internet to the country and lower the internet cost for end users.
Meanwhile, Ferozuddin Feroz, the Minister of Public Health said that the funds will be used to provide health services in the provinces and villages in order to increase access to health services, increase health facilities and increase the number of midwives and nurses and reduce the malnutrition by 2021 in the country. However, Minister of Public Health added that the funding is not enough to reach the goals of the MoPH by 2021.
The Minister of Public Health informed that transparency, accountability, improved quality of health services are the preconditions for the health-related projects set by the MoPH.
Minister of CIT added that currently 25 provinces are linked to the Fiber Optic Cables and 9 other provinces will be linked to the network with this fund.
ENDS
