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MUHAMMAD YUNUS

2006 Nobel Peace Laureate and founder of Grameen Bank


  • Professor Yunus is a global pioneer of the concepts of microcredit and social business, known as the "Banker to the poor" fueled by the belief that credit is a fundamental human right
  • Acknowledged by Fortune Magazine as "one of the greatest entrepreneurs of our time"
  • He has founded more than 50 social business companies in Bangladesh
  • Awarded with the Olympic Laurel in the Opening Ceremony of the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020, for his extensive work in sports for development. 
  • He has appeared on the cover of Time Magazine, Newsweek and Forbes Magazine
  • He has received close to 150 awards from more than 30 countries including 10 state honours
  • He proposes to create a World of 3 Zeros: zero net carbon emission, zero wealth concentration and zero unemployment

Nobel Laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus is the founder of Grameen Bank, pioneering the concepts of microcredit and social business, founding more than 50 Social Business companies in Bangladesh, fueled by the belief that credit is a fundamental human right. His objective was to help poor people escape from poverty by providing loans on terms suitable to them and by teaching them a few sound financial principles so they could help themselves.

For his constant innovation and enterprise, the Fortune Magazine named Professor Yunus in March 2012 as "one of the greatest entrepreneurs of our time." He is acknowledged globally as responsible for many innovative programs benefiting the rural poor.  At the Opening Ceremony of the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 Professor Yunus was conferred with the Olympic Laurel award for his extensive work in sports for development, bringing the concept of social business to the sports world.

In 2006, Professor Yunus and Grameen Bank were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

Professor Muhammad Yunus holds a Ph.D in Economics from Vanderbilt University (U.S) and is the recipient of 63 honorary degrees from universities across 26 countries. He has received 143 awards from 33 countries including state honours from 10 countries. He is one of only seven individuals to have received the Nobel Peace Prize, the United States Presidential Medal of Freedom and the United States Congressional Gold Medal. He has appeared on the cover of Time Magazine, Newsweek and Forbes Magazine. Also, he currently serves on the board of many international organizations, including the the board of the United Nations Foundation.. 

Professor Yunus has been stressing the need for a basic decision of 'No Going Back' to the old ways of thinking and doing. He proposes to create new roads to go to a new destination by creating a World of 3 Zeros - zero net carbon emission, zero wealth concentration for ending poverty once for all, and zero unemployment by unleashing entrepreneurship in everyone.

His recent focuses include:

  • Since 2020, Professor Yunus has been campaigning for making the Covid 19 Vaccine as a Global Common Good, urging the World Trade Organization to place a temporary waiver on Intellectual Property rights on vaccines to free up the global capacity to produce vaccines at all locations around the world.
  • Professor Yunus has launched a programme of creating a network of 3ZERO Clubs, each club to be formed by five young people. The programme aims to engage the global youth in initiating actions for creating solutions for global problems.

Muhammad Yunus tailors each presentation to the needs of his audience and is not limited to the topics listed below. Please ask us about any subject that interests you:

  • Microcredits
  • Fighting Poverty
  • Rural Development
  • Social Responsibility 
  • Conscious Capitalism 
  • Entrepreneurship

Achieving Lasting Peace by Eradicating Poverty

“I was not trained to understand self-help. I was trained, like all students of economics, to believe that all people, as they grow up, should prepare themselves to get jobs at the job market. If you fail to get a job, you register yourself for government charity. But I could not hold on to these beliefs when I faced the real life of the poor people in Bangladesh. For most of them [the] job market did not mean much. For survival they turned to economic activities on their own. But the economic institutions and policies did not take notice of their struggle. They were rejected by the formal systems for no fault of their own....” -From a speech given by Professor Yunus

Halving Poverty by 2015

“I have chosen to speak on the most daring of all Millennium Development Goals: halving poverty by 2015. I have chosen it for two reasons. First, this is the most courageous goal mankind ever set for itself. For the last two decades I have been talking about creating a world free from poverty. I talk about it not because it is unjust to have a world with poverty, which is, of course, true. I talk about it simply because I am totally convinced from my ex-perience of working with poor people that they can get themselves out of poverty if we give them the same or similar opportunities as we give to others. The poor themselves can cre-ate a poverty-free world....” -From a speech given by Professor Yunus

Ending global poverty, one loan at a time

Muhammad Yunus is a Bangladeshi banker and economist. He previously was a professor of economics and is famous for his successful application of microcredit; the extension of small loans. These loans are given to entrepreneurs too poor to qualify for traditional bank loans. Yunus is also the founder of Grameen Bank.

In 2006, Yunus and the bank were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, “for their efforts to create economic and social development from below.” Yunus himself has received sev-eral other national and international honors. He is the author of Banker to the Poor and a founding board member of Grameen Foundation. In early 2007 Yunus showed interest in launching a political party in Bangladesh named Nagorik Shakti (Citizen Power), but later discarded the plan. He is one of the founding members of Global Elders.
 

“If you want to do something you have to imagine it. 
If you don’t imagine it, it will never happen”
Muhammad Yunus