2. ● Muhammad Yunus was born in 1940 in Chittagong.
● He studied at Dhaka University
● He received a scholarship to study economics at Vanderbilt University,
for which he received a Ph.D.
3. ● Muhammad Yunus brought a group of students on a field trip to a poor
village.
● While they were there, they interviewed a woman who made a living by
making bamboo stools. They learned from her that she had to borrow
money to obtain raw bamboo and after she repaid her loans, she would
be left with an extremely small profit.
● Muhammad Yunus felt the struggle that this woman was going through
● Thus he lent $17 to 42 other such people to help them with their job.
4. ● Muhammad Yunus came up with the ‘micro-loan’.
● These loans are handed out to people who are unable to qualify for
standard bank loans.
● Eventually, he founded the Grameen Bank, a microfinance organisation,
to give out micro-loans.
● In 2006, Muhammad Yunus and the Grameen Bank were jointly awarded
the Nobel Peace Prize for their efforts to reduce poverty.
5. ● The concept of the micro-loan was not well received by the government
and other banks.
● In 2011, Muhammad Yunus was fired from his position at the Grameen
Bank as the government said that he was over the maximum age for
holding a job.
● In the same year, he was accused of producing a yogurt whose fat
content was below the legal minimum. He was also accused of sending
overdue phone bills to a Grameen Telecom user who had in fact been
paying her bills regularly.