Parliament ratifies the World Bank’s $246 million loan financing the ESSN

The parliament ratifies the loan to provide cash transfer cards for families depending on households’ characteristics. The Emergency Crisis and COVID-19 Response Social Safety Net Project (ESSN) is a scale-up of the NPTP, and aims at extending coverage from 1.5% of the population to 27% of the population. Despite its approval by the board of the World Bank in January 2021, it is currently on hold due to political and technical delays. As of November 2021, the program is still not operational.