DHAKA: The World Bank (WB) is going to provide Bangladesh a grant to meet the basic needs of around one million Rohingyas who fled their homeland Myanmar.
"The World Bank has agreed to provide Bangladesh the full fund as grant money at its spring meeting held in April in the US," The Daily Star quoted Additional Secretary of the Economic Relations Division of the government Mahmuda Begum as saying.
However, neither the government nor the World Bank could confirm the amount.
A World Bank team will be visiting Bangladesh to discuss the issue with the government.
Bangladesh sought assistance from the World Bank, in October last year. It said it would provide a mix of soft loans and grant, but Bangladesh refused to take loans.
Bangladesh Finance Minister AMA Muhith told the World Bank that the amount would be somewhere between $400 to $500 million and it would be a grant. But the World Bank rejected the request saying, such a big amount could not be given as a grant.
As per the WB's conditions, the entire fund that the World Bank has finally agreed to provide Bangladesh with will have to be spent for the Rohingyas only.