MANILA, Sept 2 - The Asian Development Bank on Thursday approved a $400 million loan to support a Philippine government programme to ensure school attendance and the health of children and pregnant women among the country's poor.
The loan is payable over 25 years, with a grace period of five years. The interest rate is based on ADB's LIBOR-based lending facility.
"The ADB support for this large government programme is $400 million over a five-year period and it will cover half a million households in areas selected by the government," Neeraj Jain, the ADB's country director for the Philippines, told reporters.
The money would help expand a programme that gives cash grants to families whose children stay in schools and get regular health check-ups, as well as to pregnant women who get regular health check-ups.
"We are servicing, as of this time, close to 900,000 beneficiaries, and by the end of 2010 we would have reached 1 million households," Social Welfare and Development Secretary Corazon Soliman said. "With this loan, we will be able to reach 2.3 million households by 2011."
The Philippines, where around a third of the population of about 94 million live in poverty, is aiming to halve the incidence of poverty by 2015 under the Millennium Development Goals.
