World Bank disburses $2.25 billion to Pakistan during FY23-24

The World Bank on Wednesday said that it disbursed $2.25 billion to Pakistan during the financial year 2023-24, which ended on June 30.

The global financial organisation termed it “unprecedented and historic”.

World Bank’s Country Director Najy Benhassine sent a letter to Federal Minister for Economic Affairs Ahad Cheema and other office bearers of the finance and concerned departments.

“The World Bank-supported portfolio in Pakistan has disbursed $2.25 billion, including $350 million from the Second Resilient Institution for the Sustainable Economy (RISE-II),” he wrote.

“This has been the highest disbursement historically and reflective of the important and much-needed results on the ground,” Benhassine added.

He appreciated the minister and Federal Secretary Kazim Niaz and his team for achieving record disbursement and much-improved execution of the WB-supported portfolio in FY24.

The bank mentioned that it did not count RISE-II budget support or emergency cash transfers disbursed after the FY2022 floods, disbursements standard IPF and P4R portfolio in FY24 have even exceeded those of FY23.

“I look forward to a successful collaboration in FY25 to support continued progress under your guidance,” he concluded.

"WB was also seeking the assessment of donor-funded projects to find out the benefits and results of fund utilisation," sources said.

They added the WB demanded the result of the assessment if the Environmental Accountability Department (EAD) had done any impact assessments of any donor-funded projects in the last five years.

“If the answer is yes, it should be shared with the masses, and if no, there is a need to undertake studies to ascertain the effectiveness of utilised funds."