Muhammad Yunus Biography

Muhammad Yunus was born in 1940 in Chittagong, a seaport in Bangladesh. The third of fourteen children, five of whom died in infancy, he was educated at Dhaka University and was awarded a Fulbright scholarship to study economics at Vanderbilt University. In 1972 he became the head of the economics department at Chittagong University.

In 1983 Yunus formed the Grameen Bank, meaning "village bank." In Bangladesh today, Grameen has 2,564 branches, with 19,800 staff serving 8.29 million borrowers in 81,367 villages. On any working day Grameen collects an average of $1.5 million in weekly installments. Of the borrowers, 97% are women and over 97% of the loans are paid back, a recovery rate higher than any other banking system. Grameen methods are applied in projects in 58 countries, including the US, Canada, France, The Netherlands and Norway. In 2006, Yunus was awarded the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize.

Mohammad Yunus' books include Banker to the Poor, Creating a World Without Poverty, and Building Social Business.

About This Biography
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