World Bank Extends PRIDE Project to June 2026

Islamabad, August 31, 2025, 05:25 PM PKT — The World Bank has approved a critical 10-month extension for the Punjab Resource Improvement and Digital Effectiveness (PRIDE) project, shifting the closing date from August 31, 2025, to June 30, 2026, to ensure completion of vital reforms, as per official documents following a request by the Economic Affairs Division (EAD) on July 22, 2025, after consultations with the Punjab government. The $304 million loan-funded programme, launched in December 2020 and effective since January 2021 via the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), targets strengthening Punjab’s revenue base, enhancing fiscal management, and expanding digital public services.

The extension will finalize business process re-engineering, a disaster risk financing strategy, and other fiscal-digital initiatives, addressing delays from overlapping federal-provincial reforms and rupee depreciation impacts, the World Bank noted, ensuring sustained reform results aligned with the Country Partnership Framework (CPF) for fiscal space and spending efficiency. Officials stressed optimal resource use to achieve a successful close by mid-2026. Web context on development projects shows past extensions, while posts found on X reflect relief mixed with skepticism—some welcome progress, others question delays. Critically, the narrative of “reform advancement” may mask implementation hurdles—web data hints at funding gaps, and X sentiment suggests distrust in timely success, pointing to potential challenges.