Muhammad Yunus

Who is Muhammad Yunus?

Muhammad Yunus is a Bangladeshi economist and social entrepreneur widely known as the pioneer of microcredit and microfinance. Born on 28 June 1940 in Chittagong, he earned a Fulbright scholarship and completed a PhD in economics at Vanderbilt University in the United States before returning home to teach at Chittagong University. In the aftermath of the 1974 famine he began lending tiny sums from his own pocket to impoverished villagers, an experiment that grew into Grameen Bank, formally established in 1983. The bank extended collateral-free loans overwhelmingly to poor women, demonstrating that the poor were creditworthy and could lift themselves out of poverty. In 2006 Yunus and Grameen Bank were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for their efforts to create economic and social development from below. He has since advanced the concept of social business, enterprises designed to solve social problems rather than maximise profit. In August 2024 he was appointed Chief Adviser of Bangladesh's interim government.

Sources: Yunus, Muhammad. Banker to the Poor: Micro-Lending and the Battle Against World Poverty, 1999 · The Nobel Peace Prize 2006 official citation, Norwegian Nobel Committee · Yunus, Muhammad. Creating a World Without Poverty, 2007