Muhammad Yunus

Launched in 2008, Yunus Centre is the global clearinghouse for social business and the international secretariat of Professor Yunus. The vision of the Centre is to eradicate poverty by 2050 through social business, of which the Grameen Bank, the bank which brought credit to the poor, is a prime example of. The Centre assists local and foreign entities in the incubation and maintenance of their own social business initiatives, while giving young entrepreneurs, students, among others, a theoretical and practical training in social business by following the "learning by doing" method. Nestled in the heart of Grameen headquarters in Dhaka, the Yunus Centre is chaired by, and works directly with Professor Yunus towards the proliferation of social business locally and internationally. Visit the Yunus Centre website for more information: http://www.yunuscentre.org/

The Grameen Bank was founded in 1976 by Professor Muhammad Yunus in famine-stricken, newly born Bangladesh. As a microfinance organization and community development bank making small loans to the impoverished without requiring collateral, the Grameen Bank has pioneered the field of microcredit for over 30 years. Grameen has offshoots locally and internationally that offer banking to the unbanked: the poor. The bank’s reasoning is quite simple: poor people have skills that are under-utilized and have the ability to lift themselves out of poverty if given the opportunity. The overwhelming majority of borrowers are women (97%) and the repayment rate is approximately 99%. Visit the Grameen Bank website for more information: http://www.grameen-info.org/