Experts
Muhammad Yunus
Managing Director, Grameen Bank
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Despite devastations and disasters, Yunus alslo sees children going to school and growing up healthier. Read More
January 25, 2008 | In Inspiration & Wisdom, Business & Economics
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Should microfinance be commercialized?
"Microcredit should be an area for social business where you want to help poor people get out of poverty by doing business...You get your money back, but you don't make profit out of it." Read More
January 25, 2008 | In Business & Economics
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Muhammad Yunus Designs an Ideal Regulatory Body
Muhammad Yunus warns against the negative forces of globalization. Read More
January 25, 2008 | In Politics & Policy, Business & Economics
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What is a government's role in alleviating poverty?
Government can give economic structure, policies and institutional framework. Read More
January 25, 2008 | In Politics & Policy, Business & Economics
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Beyond integrating social business into the structure of economic theory, Yunus says, the logical next step would be to create a stock market for social business. Read More
January 25, 2008 | In Business & Economics
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Micro-finance guru Muhammad Yunus wants to improve free markets. Read More
January 25, 2008 | In Business & Economics
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Entrepreneurship is about solving problems. Read More
January 25, 2008 | In Business & Economics
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What advice would you give business students?
Yunus would ask them, Do you want to make money? Or do you want to contribute? Read More
January 25, 2008 | In Inspiration & Wisdom, Business & Economics
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There one kind of business in the world that means business to make money. The second type is to do good to people without any idea of having benefit for yourself. Read More
January 25, 2008 | In Business & Economics
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Yunus offered himself as a guarantor for poor villagers who borrowed small amounts of money from banks. Read More
January 25, 2008 | In Business & Economics
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Yunus' will to end poverty has taken him from Bangladesh to Tennessee. Read More
January 25, 2008 | In History, Business & Economics
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What can the U.S. do to fight poverty?
The U.S. should lead the world into peace, Yunus says, and pay more attention to technological innovations and social businesses. Read More
January 23, 2008 | In Politics & Policy
In 1974, Professor Muhammad Yunus, a Bangladeshi economist from Chittagong University, led his students on a field trip to a poor village. They interviewed a woman who made bamboo stools, and learnt that she had to borrow the equivalent of 15p to buy raw bamboo for each stool made. After repaying the middleman, sometimes at rates as high as 10% a week, she was left with a penny profit margin. Had she been able to borrow at more advantageous rates, she would have been able to amass an economic cushion and raise herself above subsistence level.Realizing that there must be something terribly wrong with the economics he was teaching, Yunus took matters into his own hands, and from his own pocket lent the equivalent of $27 to 42 basket-weavers. He found that it was possible with this tiny amount not only to help them survive, but also to create the spark of personal initiative and enterprise necessary to pull themselves out of poverty.Against the advice of banks and government, Yunus carried on giving out 'micro-loans', and in 1983 formed the Grameen Bank, meaning 'village bank' founded on principles of trust and solidarity. In Bangladesh today, Grameen has 1,084 branches, with 12,500 staff serving 2.1 million borrowers in 37,000 villages. On any working day Grameen collects an average of $1.5 million in weekly installments. Of the borrowers, 94% are women and over 98% of the loans are paid back, a recovery rate higher than any other banking system. Grameen methods are applied in projects in 58 countries, including the US, Canada, France, The Netherlands and Norway.In 2006, Yunus and the bank were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, "for their efforts to create economic and social development from below.
