Lebanon approves $404 million World Bank programs for roads and schools

Lebanon's finance minister signed a $404 million deal with the World Bank on Wednesday to reinvigorate the country's education and transport sectors.

Minister Ali Hassan Khalil and the Council for Development and Reconstruction agreed on two separate projects, financed partly by grants and the rest in a loan package.

The first project, worth $200 million aims to develop the country's road network, with a grant of $45.4 million.

The rest of the package is in the form of a $156.6 million loan, repayable over 31.5 years.

The World Bank also approved another $204 million to continue "Reaching All Children with Education in Lebanon" - a project to help educate Syrian refugee children.

This package was $20 million less than in 2016 and aims to improve education access in a country hosting more than a million Syrian refugees.

"Our objective is to make sure that these (out-of-school) kids, who have done nothing to find themselves in this abysmal situation, will not turn into a lost generation," said Ferid Belhaj, the World Bank's MENA director in 2016.

Meanwhile, the country's infrastructure - still damaged by decades of civil war and crumbling from a lack of investment, urgently needs renovation.

Lengthy traffic jams in the country's city centres and inter-city roads are caused, in part, by poor traffic management systems and ubiquitous pot-holes.

The World Bank said in February the money would be used to repair around 500 kilometres (312 miles) of roads in the first phase of a broader government plan "to revamp the country's crumbling road sector".

Belhaj added that the project would "help Lebanon continue to offer basic services both to its citizens and to Syrian refugees in the country."