Nearly a third of NDB's funding provided for fighting Covid: NDB President

About a third or over $9 billion of New Development Bank’s (NDB) portfolio has gone towards fighting the impact of Covid-19 pandemic, the development bank’s president Marcos Troyjo said.

“NDB’s portfolio of projects has continued to grow and diversify. Today, NDB has approved financing for around 80 infrastructure and sustainable development projects in all our member countries, totaling portfolio of about $30 billion,” Troyjo said at the Annual BRICS Financial Forum. Over $9 billion of this financing has gone towards fighting the effects of Covid-19 across member countries, he added.

NDB’s lending activities have increased and involve collaboration with national development banks and financial intermediaries, he said. NDB has approved more than $3.6 billion loan for seven operations that entail on-lending through national financial intermediaries.

Troyjo said, many projects of NDB seek to leverage the expansive reach and capacity of national development banks to finance interventions across sectors in the BRICS countries. NDB will provide a $500 million loan to the Brazilian Development Bank (BNDES) for on-lending to sub-projects that promote climate change adaptation and mitigation across range of sectors.

NDB has also provided a $460 million loan to Russia to improve efficiency, effectiveness, and transparency of the national judicial system, and a $500 million loan to India for construction of a rail corridor connecting Delhi with Ghaziabad and Meerut.

Troyjo also said that the board of governors of NDB have approved admission of United Arab Emirates, Uruguay in Bangladesh, as the first new member countries to join the NDB. “Membership expansion is in line with our strategy to be positioned as a premier institution for emerging economies.” he said.