World Bank Approves $70m Loan for Connected Punjab Digital Drive

Key Points

• The World Bank’s Board of Executive Directors has approved a $70 million loan for Pakistan’s Connected Punjab Programme (CPP).
• The financing is designed to expand broadband internet access, improve digital public service delivery, and boost cashless transactions across Punjab.
• The programme complements the federal government’s Digital Economy Enhancement Project (Deep) and the wider Digital and AI Compact.
• Right-of-Way permitting times are targeted to fall from 90 days to 21 days, freeing up private investment in broadband.
• Fixed broadband coverage is expected to expand from 7.8 million to 9.9 million people by June 2031, connecting roughly 2.1 million additional people.
• The programme aims to unlock at least $50 million in private capital investment in digital infrastructure.
• Government computing infrastructure will be strengthened to support AI-enabled public services reaching 28.9 million people by June 2031.
• The share of women using digital government services is targeted to rise from 19 per cent to 30 per cent.
• A new Digital Invoice Management System and interoperable payment infrastructure aim to bring 350,000 people onto cashless payment systems by June 2031.
• The $70 million loan sits within a wider $278 million investment programme, with the Punjab government contributing $208 million in counterpart funding.

Islamabad (Britain Today News) July 01, 2026 – The World Bank’s Board of Executive Directors has approved a $70 million loan to support Pakistan’s Connected Punjab Programme, a scheme intended to widen broadband access, modernise digital public services, and reduce the province’s reliance on cash transactions.

The financing forms part of a broader $278 million investment package, with $208 million in counterpart funding coming from the Government of Punjab, according to a statement issued by the World Bank.

What Is the Connected Punjab Programme Designed to Achieve?

A World Bank statement said the loan programme is designed to operate in tandem with Pakistan’s broader national digital agenda. The federal government is investing in national digital public infrastructure through the Digital Economy Enhancement Project, known as Deep, and the Connected Punjab Programme has been structured to build on those foundations.

The World Bank said the programme ensures that national platforms, policies, and connectivity investments translate into tangible benefits for Punjab’s citizens and businesses. The intention, according to the statement, is to make certain that federal-level digital gains are felt directly at the provincial and household level, rather than remaining confined to national systems.

Why Does the World Bank Say Digital Connectivity Matters for Punjab?

Bolormaa Amgaabazar, the World Bank’s Country Director for Pakistan, framed the investment in stark terms.

“Digital connectivity is no longer a luxury, it is the infrastructure of opportunity,”

she said.

She went on to link the programme directly to the federal government’s wider digital strategy.

“The federal government has laid out a bold vision for Pakistan’s digital future, and Connected Punjab is how that vision reaches the doorsteps of millions of people across the province,”

she noted.

Amgaabazar also pointed to the social dimension of the programme, particularly its intended effect on women and young people.

“By expanding broadband access and strengthening Punjab’s digital backbone, the programme will open new doors for citizens, especially women and youth, to participate more fully in the economy and access better public services.”

What Structural Challenges Is the Programme Responding To?

According to the World Bank’s Programme Information Document prepared for the appraisal stage, Pakistan continues to face serious structural bottlenecks in high-speed internet infrastructure despite progress in mobile broadband penetration. Fixed broadband remains underdeveloped nationally, with only around 2.6 million fibre-to-the-home connections across the country, roughly half of which are located in Punjab.

The document also noted that only a small proportion of Pakistan’s approximately 58,000 mobile towers are connected through fibre networks, a gap that constrains the quality and reliability of digital services delivered to households and businesses. It is this combination of limited fixed-line infrastructure and patchy fibre backhaul that the Connected Punjab Programme has been designed to address, by making it financially and administratively easier for private operators to extend their networks into underserved parts of the province.

The programme is also being developed under what the World Bank describes as a “One World Bank Group” approach, working alongside the International Finance Corporation to help mobilise private capital investment in broadband infrastructure, rather than relying on public financing alone.

How Will the Programme Tackle Barriers to Private Investment in Broadband?

The Connected Punjab Programme has been designed to address the regulatory and cost barriers that currently limit private sector investment in broadband infrastructure, particularly in underserved urban areas, the World Bank statement said.

Chief among these barriers is the length of time it takes to secure Right-of-Way permits, which private operators require before laying fibre and other broadband infrastructure. The programme aims to reduce average Right-of-Way permitting processing times from 90 days to 21 days.

Lengthy permitting timelines have historically discouraged telecoms operators from committing capital to expand networks into areas seen as commercially marginal. By compressing the approval window to just three weeks, the World Bank expects the programme to make investment cases for underserved urban neighbourhoods considerably more attractive to private operators, who would otherwise have to factor months of regulatory delay into their expansion plans.

What Broadband Coverage Targets Has the Programme Set?

According to the World Bank, cutting permitting delays is intended to facilitate private sector expansion of fixed broadband coverage from 7.8 million to 9.9 million people by June 2031. That expansion would bring approximately 2.1 million additional people online across the province within the timeframe set out by the lender.

The statement said the programme also aims to enable at least $50 million in private capital investment in digital infrastructure, underlining the World Bank’s intention to use public financing to draw in private sector participation rather than relying solely on state spending.

How Will Public Agencies Use AI to Deliver Digital Services?

A further area of focus set out in the statement is shared digital infrastructure and institutional capacity to support scalable, AI-enabled public service delivery across Punjab’s provincial and local agencies.

The Connected Punjab Programme will support investments in government computing infrastructure, giving public agencies the tools to develop and run AI-powered services and deliver them to citizens at scale, the World Bank said. This is intended to allow provincial and local government bodies to move beyond pilot digital projects and operate AI-enabled services on a province-wide footing.

How Many People Are Expected to Benefit From Enhanced Digital Public Services?

By June 2031, the programme aims to reach 28.9 million people through enhanced digitally enabled public services, according to the World Bank statement. This figure represents the bulk of Punjab’s population and reflects the scale of ambition behind the scheme.

What Is the Programme’s Target for Women’s Use of Digital Government Services?

A key focus of the Connected Punjab Programme is on women’s participation in the digital economy. The World Bank statement said the programme aims to increase the share of women using digital government services from 19 per cent to 30 per cent, a target that sits alongside Amgaabazar’s remarks on expanding economic participation for women and youth.

How Does the Programme Aim to Reduce Punjab’s Reliance on Cash?

Finally, the Connected Punjab Programme also focuses on the regulatory and systems foundations needed to reduce Punjab’s reliance on cash transactions, the statement said.

By establishing a Digital Invoice Management System and creating interoperable payment infrastructure linking payments, invoices, and government reporting, the programme aims to have 350,000 people actively using cashless payment systems by June 2031.
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What Has the World Bank Said About Federal and Provincial Coordination?

Shahbaz Khan, senior digital specialist at the World Bank in Pakistan, set the programme within the context of Pakistan’s national digital strategy.

“Pakistan’s newly developed Digital and AI Compact sets the national direction, and Deep is building the digital public infrastructure backbone at the federal level,”

he said.

Khan added:

“Connected Punjab is the provincial expression of that same ambition, complementing federal investments by expanding fibre connectivity through private sector facilitation, deploying locally relevant AI-enabled services, and building a digital payments ecosystem that supports formalisation and inclusive growth across the province.”

He continued:

“Together, these investments form a coherent and mutually reinforcing digital transformation agenda for Pakistan.”

How Much Has the World Bank Committed Overall to This Programme?

The $70 million financing is being provided by the World Bank’s International Development Association, the arm of the lender that offers concessional financing to lower-income countries. This sum forms part of a broader government investment programme valued at $278 million in total, with the remaining $208 million coming as counterpart funding from the Punjab government, according to the World Bank statement.

The structure of the financing, combining concessional international lending with substantial provincial co-funding, reflects a model the World Bank has increasingly used in Pakistan, whereby federal and provincial authorities are expected to demonstrate their own financial commitment alongside external support.

What Happens Next for the Connected Punjab Programme?

With Board approval secured, attention will now turn to implementation across Punjab’s provincial and local agencies. The programme’s targets, spanning broadband expansion, AI-enabled public services, and cashless payment adoption, are all set against a June 2031 horizon, giving implementing bodies roughly five years to deliver on the commitments outlined in the World Bank’s statement.

The scale of the ambition set out by the World Bank, reaching nearly 29 million people with enhanced digital public services and bringing more than two million additional residents online, means the coming years will be closely watched as a test of whether Punjab’s digital infrastructure plans can be delivered on schedule and within budget.

The programme’s success will depend heavily on coordination between provincial bodies responsible for revenue collection, information technology, and resource management, alongside continued engagement from private telecoms operators willing to respond to the streamlined regulatory environment the loan is designed to create. Officials involved in the programme’s design have framed it not as a standalone digital initiative, but as one strand of a wider effort to align Punjab’s economy more closely with Pakistan’s national digital transformation goals, particularly as the country seeks to expand formal, trackable economic activity and reduce its dependence on cash-based transactions.

For residents of Punjab, the tangible effects of the programme are likely to be felt gradually rather than immediately, as fibre networks are extended street by street and government agencies phase in new AI-enabled services. Nonetheless, the targets set out by the World Bank, if met, would represent one of the more substantial shifts in the province’s digital landscape in recent years, touching everything from how households access the internet to how they interact with government departments and make everyday payments.