It is good to see a senior member of the government highlight the value of Yunus’s initiatives
We commend Finance Minister AMA Muhith for lauding Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus on the Grameen Bank’s success in ensuring very low default rates on its loans.
His praise for Grameen’s role in contributing to poverty alleviation and in spurring other microcredit organisations to follow its lead is most welcome, given the long running disputes between the present government and the Grameen Bank.
Over the past few years, government moves to take more control over the Grameen Bank have sparked tremendous controversy. These have proved highly divisive and have unnecessarily affected our relationship with other governments. This has undoubtedly been damaging to the government’s reputation.
It is good to see a senior member of the government take a step towards calling a truce on this issue by highlighting the value of Professor Yunus’s initiatives at the national convention on microcredit held this week.
The minister showed welcome candour, by acknowledging that Grameen’s low default rates contrast sharply with those of commercial and state run banks.
Grameen’s innovative use of group lending and peer pressure are widely credited with helping it to have achieved low default rates and make a huge difference to the lives of its millions of low-income borrowers.
We welcome the minister’s statements applauding Professor Yunus‘s leadership in popularising Grameen and spreading its model around the world.
The bank should never have been used as a cause for rancour. Its role and success deserve to be celebrated as a national success story.
Source: Dhaka Tribune
I am so happy that finally the Govt is recognizing this great person of whom we are so proud.The entire world recognizes this nobel laureate …the cat and mouse game was unnecessary..are we an ostrich that we hide our face under the sands….anyway it is never too late.