Mohd Yunus Micro Economist

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Muhammad Yunus -Microcredit and the Female Entrepreneurs Muhammad Yunus is the founder of Grameen Bank in Bangladesh. He structured his Grameen Bank model on ‘Micro-credit’- the provision of small loans from the bank to millions of poor people. The Norwegian Nobel Prize Committee honored Yunus and the Bank for their ‘‘efforts to create economic and social development from below’’ and for providing ‘‘an important liberating force in societies where women in particular have to struggle against repressive social and economic conditions’’ (Dugger 2006). The Grameen Bank model had everything to do with the economic, social as well as political transformative power of microfinance. Professor Muhammad Yunus’s inspiration behind the Grameen bank was a woman who begged for a living. He saw her often. After an initial refusal, he could convince her to take only half a dollar. She bought trinkets to sell her old clients who gave her the alms. “Some time later, I met her and asked about the business. She did not mention money. She told me she had knocked at the door of one of the houses where she used to beg. The answer she got was “Come another day.” She insisted, “I have things to sell.” They opened the door. “Mr. Yunus” she said “I showed them my trinkets and for the first time in my life I was asked to sit down in a house!” Yunus decided to create the Grameen Bank offering micro-credit operations for the poor. Its initial offering was to take women as half of its clients. It became very popular amongst women. The bank offered diversified loans. For business, interest was 20%; to build a house it was 8%; for university studies 5%. Later on, loans were also made to beggars at no interest. With the exception of a few years of natural disasters such as floods or typhoons, the bank was profitable. Professor Yunus himself states, “We do not distribute profits to
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