The Asian Development Bank proposed $100 million loan for supporting the National Pension Authority that has been limping since its inception in August 2023.
The proposed loan has been aimed at developing and strengthening the NPA鈥檚 institutional capacity, operational capacity, governance capacity, and human resource capacity, said the Economic Relations Division under the Ministry of Finance.
The NPA has been struggling to make the universal pension scheme popular as 3,73,987 persons subscribed to four instruments contributing聽 Tk 187.9 crore until聽 June 2024.
On October 11, 2024, the number of policyholders was 3,72,168 , as many policy holders became dormant in addition to the absence of new entrants.
The regime change in the country following the ouster of Awami League government on August 5, 2024 in the wake of a mass uprising has been attributed to the聽 slowdown in the NPA activities.
Especially, the countrywide subscription through the government district-level NPA branches for increasing the client base has almost remained suspended.
Economists are not surprised at the setback in the NPA.
The ousted government introduced the four schemes under the much-vaunted universal pension scheme without any feasibility study.
The hurried introduction of the universal pension scheme was political, said Mustafa K Mujeri, the Executive Director of the Institute for Inclusive Finance and Development.
Dubbing the universal pension scheme a crucial policy ahead of the country鈥檚 graduation from the least developed country bloc in the next year, he said that technical assistance from the multilateral lending agency was preferable than the loan.
Technical assistance from the multilateral lenders can replicate the success of the universal pension scheme in other countries to help wastages of foreign loans.
The NPA has allegedly been created by the AL to rehabilitate retired bureaucrats.
At the fag end of the AL regime, the ADB was discussing with the NPA on a $250 million loan to implement a project for capacity building and feasibility study.
But the interim government has shown reservation about the overall amount, said ERD officials.
The ADB in its proposal said that the universal pension scheme was a landmark initiative in Bangladesh aimed at strengthening an inclusive and sustainable social protection system by providing schemes of income security for aging people in the country.
To achieve the success of the purposed universal pension scheme, it is necessary to strengthen the NPA鈥檚 capacity to manage and operate the schemes, said the ADB.
The ADB also said that the NPA was established less than two years ago with limited resources hindering its capacity development in the key areas of institution, operation, governance, and human resources.
