Banker gains Peace Prize.Oslo -- The Nobel awards committee has awarded the 2006 Peace Prize to a Bangladeshi economist, Muhammed Yunnus, who founded the Grameen Bank in 1983. He pioneered the idea of microcredit Microcredit An extremely small loan given to impoverished people to help them become self employed. Also known as "microlending."Notes: Renee Loth wrote an article in 2002 for the Boston Globe entitled "Women Entrepreneurs," which explores how this type of loan possibly originated. In the article Loth suggests the system started in Bangladesh in 1976, when an economics professor loaned a group of women $27 to finance their own small business., lending out small sums to poor people, a majority of whom were women, so they could buy supplies and equipment to set themselves up in their own businesses. Though criticized for the high rate of interest charged (20%), Grameen awards loans without collateral and with flexible repayment schedules. The average loan is about $200 and the bank has millions of customers who no longer have to rely on loan sharks. Today it is the largest rural bank in Bangladesh, with a repayment record of 98%. It is credited with helping many Bangladeshis escape the poverty trap. "Poverty alleviation is peace" is Yunnus' watchword (Nat. Post, Globe, Oct. 14, 2006). |
|
||||||||||||||

Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion