Supermarket Presentation

1. Muhammad Yunus Grameen Bank

2. Muhammad Yunus was born in 28th June, 1940 in the village of Bathua, in Hathazari,
Chittagong, the business centre of what was then Eastern Bengal.
In 1974, Professor Muhammad Yunus, a Bangladeshi economist from Chittagong
University, led his students on a field trip to a poor village. They interviewed a woman
who made bamboo stools, and learnt that she had to borrow the equivalent of 15p to
buy raw bamboo for each stool made. After repaying the middleman, sometimes at
rates as high as 10% a week, she was left with a penny profit margin. Had she been
able to borrow at more advantageous rates, she would have been able to amass an
economic cushion and raise herself above subsistence level.
Realizing that there must be something terribly wrong with the economics he was
teaching, Yunus took matters into his own hands, and from his own pocket lent the
equivalent of ? 17 to 42 basket-weavers. He found that it was possible with this tiny
amount not only to help them survive, but also to create the spark of personal
initiative and enterprise necessary to pull themselves out of poverty.

3. Against the advice of banks and government, Yunus carried on giving out
'micro-loans', and in 1983 formed the Grameen Bank, meaning 'village bank'
founded on principles of trust and solidarity.
In Bangladesh today, Grameen has 2,564 branches, with 19,800 staff serving
8.29 million borrowers in 81,367 villages. On any working day Grameen
collects an average of $1.5 million in weekly installments. Of the borrowers,
97% are women and over 97% of the loans are paid back, a recovery rate
higher than any other banking system. Grameen methods are applied in
projects in 58 countries, including the US, Canada, France, The Netherlands
and Norway.

4. HISTORY
By a Bangladeshi government ordinance on October 2, 1983, the project was transformed into an
independent bank. After this establishment, the bank started experiencing tremendous demand
from foreigners around the world, who wanted to learn further about the operations of Grameen
Bank, as well as meet with its staff and clientele.
Due to overwhelming requests from abroad, Grameen Bank’s Head Office created the “training
program” for internationals. Initially, this training program was designed for foreigners interested
in conducting research about the operations of the bank and the impact of microlending on the
poor, as well for policy makers from around the world. In 1987, the Managing Director officially
inaugurated the establishment of the Grameen Bank Training Program.
As the success of Grameen’s Micro-credit model increased on the global platform, curiosity and
demand for this new approach extended beyond the
research and policy frameworks. To meet the growing learning needs of the global community,
Grameen Bank established the International Program Department.
Since its inception, the International Program Department has carefully designed a diverse range of
training programs available to all individuals who
are interested in not only furthering their knowledge about how Grameen Bank works, but also to
disseminate their newfound insights, ideas, and innovations to the international community.
Currently, the International Program Department offers training programs in the forms of
Grameen Basics Course, Exposure Program, International Dialogue Program, Research, Internship,
Workshops and Media (preparing documentaries for press, television, etc.)

5. •Objective
•The Grameen Bank believes that the best way for participants to
learn about how the bank works, is through first hand exposure and
observations at the field level. Through these experiences,
participants are encouraged to draw their own conclusions about
the effectiveness of Grameen Bank’s work and the impact it has on
the poorest of the poor. The objectives of GB’s training programs
are to:
•Arouse curiosity
•Stimulate interest on the subject of Microfinancing
•Encourage responsibility of self-motivated learning
•Learn and share with others
•Discover individual role in the organization and the global
community

6. •Credits : Google.com
:http://www.grameen-info.org
•Team : Favian Chua, Duncan Pang, Darren Tan,
Ong Rui Peng