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NGO Affairs Bureau

department · verified (verified 2026-05-17)

Profile

Head
Md Daud Miah, ndc
Role
Director General
Annual budget
—
Staff
—
Established
1990
Legal basis
Foreign Donations (Voluntary Activities) Regulation Ordinance, 1978 (original enabling instrument); Foreign Donations (Voluntary Activities) Regulation Act, 2016 (FDRA 2016, primary operative law replacing the 1978 ordinance); Foreign Donations (Voluntary Activities) Regulation (Amendment) Ordinance, 2025 (approved by Council of Advisers, November 2025, streamlining registration and fund-release procedures -- implementation ongoing). Bureau established by administrative order of the Government of Bangladesh in 1990; initially placed under the President's Secretariat and Cabinet Division; transferred to the Prime Minister's Office in 1991 with the restoration of parliamentary government.

NGOAB is actively implementing the Foreign Donations (Voluntary Activities) Regulation (Amendment) Ordinance, 2025 -- approved by the Council of Advisers in November 2025 and disseminated to stakeholders in December 2025 -- which streamlines registration, fund release, and digital reporting for the 2,498 registered NGOs (240 foreign, 2,258 domestic). A parallel digital-services overhaul (MoUs with BDCCL and Sonali Bank, September 2025) is underway to move fee collection and project-approval workflows online. The bureau remains the sole gatekeeper for FD-6 project approvals and FD-7 emergency releases for all major foreign-assisted NGOs including BRAC and ASA.

Recent activity

Provenance & notes

Established in 1990 by administrative order; placed under Prime Minister's Office in 1991 when parliamentary government was restored. Physical address: Plot # E/13B, Agargaon Shere Bangla Nagar, Dhaka-1207. The bureau operates under two successive legal instruments: the original Foreign Donations (Voluntary Activities) Regulation Ordinance, 1978 and its replacement, the FDRA 2016; the 2025 Amendment Ordinance is operative but not yet converted to a permanent act. FD-6 is the standard project-approval form; FD-7 is the emergency-relief fast-track (24-hour turnaround). Registration certificates are valid for ten years (renewable). As of the most recent Wikipedia update (approximately May 2026), 2,498 NGOs hold active registration: 240 foreign, 2,258 domestic; BRAC and ASA are among the largest domestic registrants subject to routine compliance oversight. The current Director General is Md Daud Miah, ndc (Additional Secretary rank), confirmed by UNDP press releases from July-December 2025 and TBS News December 2025. The name 'ATM Saiful Islam' provided in the task brief does not match any primary source found across multiple searches (ngoab.gov.bd, UNDP Bangladesh, TBS News, The Daily Star, New Age BD, The Financial Express); no appointment or mention of this name in connection with the NGOAB was found. The staff_count and annual_budget_bdt fields are null because NGOAB does not publicly disclose a disaggregated sanctioned-post count or a standalone budget line in documents accessible without Bangla-language portal login; these should be populated from the official annual report or Ministry of Finance budget annex when obtained. The parent_id_ref 'Prime Minister's Office' is correct as of 17 February 2026 (BNP government assumption); under the Yunus interim government (August 2024 - February 2026) it was formally the 'Chief Adviser's Office'.

Sources