Bangladesh Micro Credit Pioneer Wins Nobel Peace Prize

by Patrick Lunsford, CollectionIndustry.com

Bangladeshi economist and banker Muhammad Yunus was announced today as the winner of the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for efforts to lift millions out of poverty through micro credit lending.

His efforts, and the efforts of the Grameen Bank which he founded, earned him the nickname "banker to the poor". He opened the Grameen Bank in 1976 with a mission to provide small loans to impoverished Bangladeshis, predominantly women. Yunus would offer loans to the women to start small businesses when traditional banks would balk at lending to poor citizens with no collateral.

His program has been credited with pioneering the idea of microcredit, a concept copied in more than 100 nations.

"It's very happy news for me and also for the nation. But it has burdened us with further responsibility," he told reporters at his home in the Bangladeshi capital, Dhaka. "Now the war against poverty will be further intensified across the world. It will consolidate the struggle against poverty through microcredit in most of the countries."

The prize-deciding Norwegian Nobel Committee commented that the elimination of poverty was a path to peace and democracy in the award citation.