MANILA, Sept. 27 (Xinhua) -- The Asian Development Bank (ADB) on Friday said it had signed an agreement with the International Finance Facility for Education (IFFEd) that will enable at least 500 million U.S. dollars in new concessional education funding for lower-middle-income countries (LMICs) in Asia and the Pacific.
Under the financing partnership, IFFEd, a sovereign-backed Swiss foundation established in 2023 to invest in education and skills in LMICs, will guarantee 125 million dollars of ADB's sovereign loan exposure across all sectors, known as a synthetic portfolio, and provide an initial 50 million dollars in grants.
By blending IFFEd's guarantees to ADB with grants comprising 10 percent of every loan, the first-of-its-kind arrangement facilitates a four times leverage ratio of the guarantee, boosting the amount of capital ADB can lend while lowering borrowing costs for the bank's developing members.
The ADB's developing members, such as Bangladesh, India, Mongolia, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Timor-Leste, Uzbekistan, and Vietnam, are eligible for IFFEd funding. ■
