The Elders

After receiving his PhD in Economics from Vanderbilt University in the United States, Muhammad Yunus returned to his home country of Bangladesh in 1972. There he founded the Grameen Bank Project in 1976, and transformed it into a formal bank in 1983.

Through the Grameen Bank Muhammad Yunus has given practical expression to his belief that the world’s poorest people can transform the conditions of their own lives if given appropriate financial support. From this belief came the idea of ‘micro-credit’ – bank loans offered to the poor without asking them for guarantees or security in return.

As Muhammad Yunus himself describes it: ‘The repayments are designed in such a way that they are tiny instalments. You can pay back your loan over a long period. So all of this together is micro-credit. Small loans for income-generating activity, addressed to the poorest, without collateral.’ More

See Muhammad Yunus's speech at the announcement