The Islamic Development Bank (IDB) Group has approved new finances worth $ 260.6 million (SR 977.25 million) to carry out a number of development projects in the member countries as well as Muslim communities in different parts of the world.
The new loans, which were approved by the bank’s board of executive directors, included $ 118 million for Dr. Shariati Hospital Project in Iran, $ 81 million for Zaria Water Supply Expansion Project in Nigeria, $ 33.6 million for Gorou Banda Thermal Power Project in Niger, said IDB President Ahmad Mohamed Ali.
Other projects to be financed by the bank are: Hadath El-Jubba-Bqerqasha Road Project in Lebanon ($ 16 million), the National Primary Health Care Services Project in Burkina Faso ($ 10 million).
The board gave the go-ahead for $ 1.36 million grant under IDB’s Waqf Fund for educational and health projects in Muslim communities. Santhi charitable hospital in Kerala, India will be given $200,000 for building a nursing college, the president said.
IDB will support a waqf project in Ethiopia by giving a grant of $ 480,000. A school expansion project in Mindanao, the Philippines will receive $ 280,000 while a women teachers college in Malawi will get $ 200,000 and a teachers college in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania $ 200,000, the president said.
The session took note of two technical assistance grants approved earlier by the IDB president for Egypt ($ 306,000 for the development of the country’s action plan of E4E) and Mozambique ($ 90,000 for the ISFD Sustainable Villages Project).
The board reviewed a progress report on setting up a $ 1 billion Mega Islamic Bank based on a tripartite agreement signed in Khartoum last April, on the sidelines of the 37th annual meeting of the IDB Board of Governors.
The government of Qatar, the IDB Group and the Dallah Albaraka Group signed the agreement.
The registered capital of the new bank currently stands at $ 500 million.
The Mega Islamic Bank aims to serve Islamic banking institutions in the field of liquidity management by introducing mechanisms, financial papers and products.
The meeting further discussed a number of other progress reports, including the implementation of IDB Project for supporting Youth Employment in Arab Countries, for which IDB has allocated $ 250 million, the president said.
IDB OKs $ 260.6 million to finance development projects
