Muhammad Yunus: Godfather of Microcredit
Filed in archive Microfinance on March 12, 2010
© World Economic ForumHe may not be the first micro lender of the world but he is surely the first one to bring it into limelight. You must have guessed till now I am talking about Muhammad Yunus who made the concept of microcredit a household name. He was born in 1940 and completed his PhD from Vanderbilt University. After Bangladesh was created he returned to teach economics at Chittagong University. He always dreamt of creating a new nation and was deeply moved in the year 1974 when famine struck in the country which forced poor people to abandon their household and struggle in order to survive. It was then that he decided to use his knowledge towards addressing rural poverty. He got himself involved with village life and realized that poor people were trapped in the claws of shrewd money lenders and were forced to live the life of a bonded labor.
Seeing the poor people in misery, he gave out loans to people from his own pocket so that they could pay back in small installments. This new concept excited the villagers. He even asked banks to help out the villagers who were paying interest rates as high as 200 to 300% to village moneylenders but banks simply refused. So he went ahead and created an institution which could offer loans to poor people. This gave birth to Grameen Bank which today has become a household name. By the year 2007 it had distributed loans worth $6 billion and served more than seven million people in 78,000 villages in Bangladesh.
Today Grameen Bank is considered to be the foundation for the worldwide microcredit movement.
© World Economic Forum
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Response from:
su ar?tma
(04/04/10 4:02am)
this news wonderfull
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Parça tl
(04/27/10 1:49am)
Young people under the age of 25, all residents of England and 50 cents for 15 minutes of speech, freedom of every month, you can use the £ 10 gift, every day after five text messages for free!
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