Banker to Poor Gets Nobel Prize
The Bangladeshi founder of a bank that specializes in helping the poor access microbusiness loans without collateral won the Nobel Peace Prize.
Muhammad Yunus, the 65-year-old economist who has been dubbed the “banker to the poor�, and his Grameen Bank that he founded in 1983 will share the $1.4 million prize.
In his acceptance speech, Yunus said he would use the prize money to develop high-nutrition low-cost food for the poor.
“Every single individual on earth has both the potential and the right to live a decent life,� the Nobel Committee said in its citation. “Across cultures and civilizations, Yunus and Grameen Bank have shown that even the poorest of the poor can work to bring about their own development.�
Loans go toward buying items such as cows to start a dairy, chickens for an egg business, or mobile phones to start businesses where villagers who have no access to phones pay a small fee to make calls. Grameen Bank was the first lender to hand out microcredit, giving very small loans to poor Bangladeshis who did not qualify for loans from conventional banks.
Photo by EPA.
Banker to Poor Gets Nobel Prize « Distinctive results on October 16th, 2006 2:51 am
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