PKSF inks $250mn deal with World Bank to help pandemic-hit micro-entrepreneurs
RAISE project to augment scope for decent employment for 175,000 youths
Palli Karma-Sahayak Foundation (PKSF) and the World Bank signed an agreement involving $250 million to implement the Recovery and Advancement of Informal Sector Employment (RAISE) project.
Dr Nomita Haldar, managing director of PKSF, and Mercy Miyang Tembon, resident representative of the World Bank, signed the agreement on Wednesday.
Of the $ 250 million, the World Bank will finance $ 150 million and PKSF will provide the remaining $ 100 million, said a press release.
The RAISE will facilitate employability and productivity of the informal sector and extend financial assistance, through 70 partner organisations of PKSF, to 1,75,000 youths having low income in urban and peri-urban areas across the country.
Micro-entrepreneurs, adversely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, will also get financial assistance on easy terms under the project.
PKSF will arrange training on sustainable micro-enterprise management, life skills development for young entrepreneurs and foreign language training for the technically skilled youths willing to work abroad.
The unskilled and semi-skilled youths will be supported with appropriate technical skill training. Thirty percent of the total participants of the project will be women.
