Muhammad Yunus on Lending to Poor

Posted by admin on Thursday, January 16, 2014

Muhammad Yunus Money Quotation saying Bangladeshi microcredit entrepreneur lends money to the poor because traditional credit fails. Muhammad Yunus said:
 

 

“I went to the bank and proposed that they lend money to the poor people. The bankers almost fell over” — Muhammad Yunus

 

 

This quote from Muhammad Yunus suggests that traditional bankers were very surprised by his proposal for lending to poor communities.

The best interpretation is that Yunus found the idea of providing financial services to impoverished groups to be innovative and unconventional compared to risk-averse banking practices at the time.

According to Yunus, bankers reacted with disbelief and skepticism to his concept of microcredit and view of poverty as an economic rather than solely personal issue.

The implication seems to be that Yunus’ vision challenged entrenched assumptions within the industry that the poor were unbankable. His proposal helped pioneer the field of microfinance by proving that poverty can be addressed through access to credit, entrepreneurship support and a different approach than outright rejection of the poor as uncreditworthy.