March 25: The Government of Nepal has received commitments for foreign aid amounting to over Rs 138.5 billion in the eight months of the current fiscal year 2022/23.
According to the Ministry of Finance (MoF), Nepal received commitments for grants equivalent to Rs 24.56 billion and Rs 114 billion for foreign loan from different bilateral and multilateral development partners in the last eight months.
The government through its annual budget had set a target to receive foreign loan worth Rs 242.26 billion and foreign grants of Rs 44.46 billion in the eight months. Against the target, the commitment for foreign loan and grants stood at 47 percent and 44.28 percent respectively.
The government obtained commitment of Rs 350 million for grants from Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) for 'Project for Human Resources Development Scholarship'. Likewise, JICA has expressed Rs 2 billion commitment for grants for 'Tarai Region Irrigation System Strengthening Project'.
The government received commitments of Rs 1.37 billion and Rs 2 billion for grants for 'Wash for All' and 'Empowered Women, Prosperous Nepal' respectively.
Swiss government gave grant commitment of Rs 990 million for ‘Technical and Commercial Education Programme’. Likewise, Nepal government received commitment of Rs 1 billion grants each for entrepreneurship development of returnee workers from South Korea and capacity development of Nepal Police’s Cyber Bureau.
Asian Development Bank expressed commitment of Rs 2.47 billion and Rs 1.57 billion grants for horticulture in hilly parts of the country and for women development programme respectively.
Nepal government obtained commitments of Rs 5.26 billion grants for the capacity building of security and justice system from British government.
Likewsie, the government gained loan commitments of Rs 114 billion from World Bank, Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), Asian Development Bank(ADB) and others for various projects and programmes in the eight months of the current fiscal year.
