Early Warning System

Regions

South Asia

Geographic location where the impacts of the investment may be experienced.

Countries

Bangladesh

Geographic location where the impacts of the investment may be experienced.

Financial Institutions

International Finance Corporation (IFC)

International, regional and national development finance institutions. Many of these banks have a public interest mission, such as poverty reduction.

Project Status

Proposed

Stage of the project cycle. Stages vary by development bank and can include: pending, approval, implementation, and closed or completed.

Bank Risk Rating

Environmental and social categorization assessed by the development bank as a measure of the planned project’s environmental and social impacts. A higher risk rating may require more due diligence to limit or avoid harm to people and the environment. For example, "A" or "B" are risk categories where "A" represents the highest amount of risk. Results will include projects that specifically recorded a rating, all other projects are marked ‘U’ for "Undisclosed."

Borrower

Bahon Limited

A public entity (government or state-owned) provided with funds or financial support to manage and/or implement a project.

Sectors

Communications

The service or industry focus of the investment. A project can have several sectors.

Investment Amount (USD)

Not Disclosed

Value listed on project documents at time of disclosure. If necessary, this amount is converted to USD ($) on the date of disclosure. Please review updated project documents for more information.

Primary Source

Original disclosure @ IFC website

Updated in EWS Oct 22, 2023

Disclosed by Bank Sep 25, 2023

Contribute Information
Can you contribute information about this project?
Contact the EWS Team

Project Description

If provided by the financial institution, the Early Warning System Team writes a short summary describing the purported development objective of the project and project components. Review the complete project documentation for a detailed description.

As stated on the summary of collaboration project, the International Finance Corporation entered into a collaboration agreement with Bahon Limited, one of three private operators in Bangladesh licensed to provide nationwide wholesale broadband services. This partnership aims to support the company with nationwide fiber rollout, particularly in cities outside Dhaka with smaller populations and underdeveloped fiber footprint, to support mobile network operators in tower fiberization efforts and 5G rollout. With current tower fiberization and home broadband penetration rates well below regional peers, IFC believes that the company has an important role to play in supporting the national digital connectivity agenda in Bangladesh. IFC will work with the company to develop a bankable business plan and to understand applicable E&S considerations, with the overall objective to support the company to expand its rollout of nationwide fiber.

Early Warning System Project Analysis

For a project with severe or irreversible impacts to local community and natural resources, the Early Warning System Team may conduct a thorough analysis regarding its potential impacts to human and environmental rights.

People Affected By This Project

People Affected By This Project refers to the communities of people likely to be affected positively or negatively by a project.

Investment Description

Here you can find a list of individual development financial institutions that finance the project.

International Finance Corporation (IFC)

No investment information provided at the time of disclosure.

Private Actor Relationship

A Private Actor is a non-governmental body or entity that is the borrower or client of a development project, which can include corporations, private equity and banks. This describes the private actors and their roles in relation to the project, when private actor information is disclosed or has been further researched.

Private Actors Description

As stated on the company's website, Bahon Limited is a leading telecommunication company in Bangladesh, providing innovative and customer-centric telecommunication transmission services to every corner of the country. We are a government-authorized third private Nationwide Telecommunication Transmission Network Operator, licensed by the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission since December 5, 2019.

Private Actor 1	Private Actor 1 Role	Private Actor 1 Sector	Relation	Private Actor 2	Private Actor 2 Role	Private Actor 2 Sector
-	-	-	-	Bahon Limited	Contractor	Communications

Contact Information

This section aims to support the local communities and local CSO to get to know which stakeholders are involved in a project with their roles and responsibilities. If available, there may be a complaint office for the respective bank which operates independently to receive and determine violations in policy and practice. Independent Accountability Mechanisms receive and respond to complaints. Most Independent Accountability Mechanisms offer two functions for addressing complaints: dispute resolution and compliance review.

Sponsor - Bahon Limited:

Address: Star Center, 2nd Floor, Road-138, Block-SE(C), Plot-2, Gulshan Avenue, Gulshan-1, Dhaka-1212, Bangladesh
Email: contact@bahon.com
Phone: +880 9606 200 900
Website: https://bahon.com/

ACCESS TO INFORMATION

You can submit a request for information disclosure at: https://disclosures.ifc.org/#/inquiries

If you believe that your request for information from IFC has been unreasonably denied, or that this Policy has been interpreted incorrectly, you can submit a complaint at the link above to IFC's Access to Information Policy Advisor, who reports directly to IFC's Executive Vice President.

ACCOUNTABILITY MECHANISM OF IFC/MIGA

The Compliance Advisor Ombudsman (CAO) is the independent complaint mechanism and fact-finding body for people who believe they are likely to be, or have been, adversely affected by an IFC or MIGA- financed project. If you submit a complaint to the CAO, they may assist you in resolving a dispute with the company and/or investigate to assess whether the IFC is following its own policies and procedures for preventing harm to people or the environment. If you want to submit a complaint electronically, you can email the CAO at CAO@worldbankgroup.org You can learn more about the CAO and how to file a complaint at http://www.cao-ombudsman.org