Muhammad Yunus is a Bangladeshi economist and founder of Grameen Bank who pioneered microcredit and microfinance. During visits to poor villages in Bangladesh in the 1970s, he discovered that very small loans could make a significant difference for poor families. He began lending his own money to villagers and found they reliably repaid the loans. This led him to establish Grameen Bank in 1983, which provides small, low-interest loans to poor families without requiring collateral. Grameen Bank has since grown to lend to millions of poor families across Bangladesh.
1. Professor Muhammad
Yunus
BB Citizenship Stage
2
DONE BY: FREDRIC SEAH, MARCUS ONG, RUEBEN YEO, NICHOLAS KO
2. Who is Muhammad Yunus
He is a Bangladeshi Social Entrepreneur, Banker, Economist and civil
society leader.
He pioneered the concepts of microcredit and microfinance.
His bank, Grameen Bank, gives loans to those who are too poor to qualify
for traditional bank loans.
Educational Background :
The third of nine children, Yunus was born on 28 June 1940 to a Muslim
family in the village of Bathua.
After his graduation, Yunus joined the Bureau of Economics as a research
assistant to the economics researches of Professor Nurul Islam and Rehman
Sobhan
3. Career life…
In 1976, during visits to the poorest households in the village of Jobra near
Chittagong University, Yunus discovered that very small loans could make
a disproportionate difference to a poor person.
Village women who made bamboo furniture had to take usurious loans to
buy bamboo, and repay their profits to the lenders.
Traditional banks did not want to make tiny loans at reasonable interest to
the poor due to high risk of default.
But he believed that they would pay back
the money and thus started his own bank
4. Grameen Bank.
In 1976, during visits to the poorest households in the village of Jobra near
Chittagong University, Yunus discovered that very small loans could make
a disproportionate difference to a poor person.
Village women who made bamboo furniture had to take usurious loans to
buy bamboo, and repay their profits to the lenders.
Traditional banks did not want to make tiny loans at reasonable interest to
the poor due to high risk of default
But Yunus believed that, given the chance, the poor will repay the money
and hence microcredit was a viable business model
5. Yunus lent US$27 of his money to 42 women in the village, who made a
profit of BDT 0.50 (US$0.02) each on the loan. Thus Yunus is credited with
the idea of microcredit alongside Dr. Akhtar Hameed Khan, founder of the
Pakistan Academy for Rural Development (now Bangladesh Academy for
Rural Development), whom Yunus greatly admired.
In December 1976, Yunus finally secured a loan from the
government Janata Bank to lend to the poor in Jobra. The institution
continued to operate, securing loans from other banks for its projects. By
1982, it had 28,000 members. On 1 October 1983, the pilot project began
operation as a full-fledged bank for poor Bangladeshis and was
renamed Grameen Bank ("Village Bank").
