This is an interesting book of how someone builds an inspiring institution from scratch & makes a difference in the lives of millions of poor people. Muhammad Yunus (Winner of Nobel Prize for Peace in 2006) has written this book " Banker to the Poor" along with Alan Jolis.
Dr. Yunus, while going to the university kept observing that inside the university there is all the knowledge of the world in the books but just outside the Campus, lot of poor people are struggling. He tried helping them by persuading the local bank to lend them . The traditional way of banking did not allow this to happen, as the poor do not have collateral nor ability to manage the documentation.
What follows then is a long journey of Dr. Yunus walking a different path. He finally took up on his own to show everyone that this was needed & was feasible. Dr. Yunus argues and proves with his own experiences that Poor people are more honest in repaying the loans and they are more punctual in paying on time. I am planning to read C K Prahalad's Fortune 500 at the Bottom of Pyramid and I think the Author has similar observatoins.
More difficult was to lend money to poor women. There is an interesting experience. Dr. Yunus receives a letter from the Central Bank of Bangladesh - Pls. explain us the reason why majority of your borrowers are women. Dr. Yunus replied - 'While I will be happy to answer you question, I would like know if the Central Bank has ever questioned any bank as to why majority of their borrowers are Men?'
The manner is which Dr. Yunus persuaded decision makers, built his team, designed the model, worked thru the bureaucracy, worked with poor is remarkably outstanding.
For anyone interested in Micro Finance subject, this book is strongly recommended.
Regards, Rohit
No comments:
Post a Comment