Kazakhstan has drawn 0.33 per cent of its World Bank rural broadband loan

Kazakhstan had drawn down US$0.27 million, or 0.33 per cent, of a World Bank loan meant to pay internet providers to build broadband in unserved villages by the end of June, the Bank's latest implementation status report, dated 29 June 2026, says.

The Digital Acceleration for an Inclusive Economy project, known as DARE, became effective on 20 January 2026. The report says its first three rounds of matching grants have been launched and have advanced through initial selection and award stages, calls the project early-stage with low disbursement, and keeps its progress and implementation ratings at moderately satisfactory.

How the grants work

The Telecommunications Committee, which sits under the Ministry of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Development, implements the project through a dedicated unit, the Bank's environmental and social commitment plan states. Internet service providers (ISPs) apply for matching grants to build backhaul and access networks that connect households, public institutions and businesses, the loan agreement says. A grant may not exceed the equivalent of US$500,000 per sub-project, and one ISP may win at most two in a single call. Grants are not repayable unless the committee suspends or recovers them, and each ISP must contribute at a level set in a Matching Grants Manual that the loan agreement does not reproduce.

The project appraisal document puts the contribution at US$36 million of private capital alongside US$90 million of Bank financing for the infrastructure component, or 28.6 per cent of its US$126 million cost, by Corridor Signal's calculation. It targets villages that an earlier "250+" programme linked to the fibre backbone but where no network reached homes. The document counts 1,214 such villages in four priority regions, Akmola, Turkestan, West Kazakhstan and East Kazakhstan. It says 28.2 per cent of the population, or 5.4 million people, lived in unserved or underserved areas, including 1.7 million with no 4G or fibre access, and that 46 per cent of the unserved population, or 775,000 people, lived in those four regions.

The appraisal expects small operators to connect at least half of households in grant areas and to recover their outlay in one to two years. It estimates that without public money the net present value to commercial ISPs would be negative US$29.57 million. It also names a risk that state-backed operators dominating the fixed and mobile markets could capture the subsidy, and says the manual may require winners to give wholesale access to the co-financed infrastructure and may limit the number of lots one operator can win.

Where it stands

The loan was approved on 22 February 2024 and signed on 12 December 2024. The June 2025 report said ratification was awaited, and the December 2025 report said it had come in July 2025, with the project unit, the operations manual and the grants manual still being finalised. Effectiveness on 20 January 2026 came 404 days after signing, by Corridor Signal's calculation. The loan agreement set an effectiveness deadline of 180 days after signature, and the reports reviewed do not say whether it was extended.

The dollar size of the loan has changed. The June 2026 report lists US$80.95 million against US$92.43 million at approval and in the December 2025 report, with nothing cancelled. The loan agreement states the amount as ¥13,083,100,000, and the Bank's stakeholder engagement plan gives the infrastructure component as ¥12.69 billion. At the rate implied by the June figure, about ¥161.6 to the dollar by Corridor Signal's calculation, that component is worth about US$78.5 million, which at the grant cap would fund at least 157 sub-projects. The reports do not explain the change in the dollar figure.

All outcome indicators in the June report remain at baseline. Targets for June 2028 are 1.1 million people newly using broadband, a rise in the share of households in project areas that subscribe to high-quality broadband, defined in the appraisal as 10 Mbps or faster, from 37 per cent to 45 per cent, US$36 million of private capital mobilised, and 70 per cent of beneficiaries satisfied. Risk as a whole is rated moderate, with political and governance risk and sector strategy risk rated substantial.

For context, Kazakhstan had 15.3 fixed broadband subscriptions per 100 people in 2024, up from 14.3 in 2023, World Bank data show.

The next report is due around December

The Bank has published these reports roughly every six months, so the next is due around December. The June report said an upgrade in ratings could be considered then if progress is sustained. The loan closes on 31 December 2028. A revised commitment plan was dated 2 September 2026 on the Bank's documents site. Compared with the January 2024 version, Corridor Signal found updated agency names and wording changes but no new substantive commitment, and ISPs must still prepare site-specific assessments before bidding documents are issued for sub-projects that need them.

The project featured at the International Telecommunication Union's regional forum in Dushanbe on 29 and 30 September. A World Bank digital specialist cited the US$92 million project, supported by competitive grants to ISPs, as an example of its work in Central Asia, the forum's draft outcome report says.