The government will allocate 120 trillion rials ($2.85 billion) in loans from the National Development Fund of Iran to enhance job creation in rural areas, Abolfazl Razavi, vice president for rural development and deprived areas, has announced. The loans will be granted to residents of rural and nomadic border regions with an interest rate of 4% and to those living in rural and nomadic non-border regions with an interest rate of 6%. Razavi put the payback period of loans at up to three years and the moratorium period at six months, IRNA reported. “These banking facilities are expected to help create close to 320,000 sustainable jobs in Iranian villages,” he said.