Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus shows how the social business model can harness the entrepreneurial spirit to address global problems.
Bio
Dr. Muhammad Yunus
Muhammad Yunus is founder and managing director of the Grameen Bank, established in Bangladesh in 1983. Dr. Yunus founded the bank with the objective of helping poor people escape from poverty by providing loans on terms suitable to them and by teaching them a few sound principles of finances so they can help themselves.
The Grameen Bank has advanced to the forefront of a burgeoning world movement toward eradicating poverty through micro-lending and its model has been replicated in over 100 countries worldwide.
In 2006, Dr. Yunus was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his work with the Bank.
Bank in Bangladesh, the first bank to specialize in small loans for poor individuals. Originated by economist Muhammad Yunus, the Grameen banking model is based on groups of five prospective borrowers who meet regularly with Grameen Bank field managers. Typically, two of the five prospective borrowers are granted loans. If, after a probationary time period, the first two borrowers meet the terms of repayment, then loans are granted to the remaining group members. Peer pressure acts as a replacement for traditional loan collateral. Grameen became an independent bank in 1983; headquartered in Dhaka, Bangladesh, it has more than 2,200 branches in the country. An average Grameen loan is about $300. The Grameen model has come to symbolize an efficient means of helping the poor by providing them with opportunities to help themselves. Nearly all of Grameen's loan recipients have been women. In 2006 Grameen Bank and Yunus were awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace.
Like the concept and wish you all the best. It's nice to see innovation in the financial sector where interest is not the only driving factor to change people’s life.
If every bank had even 1% of their services around making real difference to peoples life’s and not 99.9% focus on profit alone from charges and loans, the banks would be much loved and appreciated.