prof muhammad yunus - Dhaka Mirror

Young entrepreneurs from US meet Yunus

Admin — Tue, 08 Jan 2013 15:41:33 +0000

A team of 16 young entrepreneurs from the US called on Professor Muhammad Yunus at Yunus Centre in Dhaka on Saturday.
Professor Yunus elaborated on his renowned microcredit programmes, and stressed that entrepreneurship was at the heart of all positive human endeavours.
“All human beings are basically entrepreneurs,” Yunus said.
The delegation from the US state of Oklahoma is in Bangladesh on an exchange programme supported by the US Department of State.
The programme is being implemented jointly by Centre for Entrepreneurship Development of BRAC University and the University of Oklahoma.
A Bangladeshi delegation toured USA earlier in October 2012.
Many interesting and game-changing ideas in the realm of social development and poverty alleviation were started by Yunus, said Daniel Pullin, the founding director of the Oklahoma University’s Centre for the Creation of Economic Wealth.
“This made this meeting very valuable,” Pullin said.

-With The Daily Star input

The post Young entrepreneurs from US meet Yunus appeared first on Dhaka Mirror.

It’s a black day

Admin — Fri, 24 Aug 2012 09:02:52 +0000

Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus on Thursday termed the amendment to Grameen Bank Ordinance ‘a black day’ for the nation and said it would mark the beginning of the end of the glorious history of Greameen Bank.’
The founder of Grameen Bank made the remarks in a press statement within hours of the government
notifying the amended ordinance in its official Gazette.
The amendment empowers Grameen Bank chairman to take decisions ignoring the majority opinion of the bank’s board of directors.
Since Grameen Bank was founded three decades ago, its chairman took decisions reflecting the majority opinion of the 12-member board of directors.
The chairman is one of the three government nominees to the 12-member board.
Muhammad Yunus was relieved as the managing director of Grameen Bank last year by the government saying he was well past the retirement age of 60.
He was 70 last year.
The future of the bank has been vested in the chairman through the amendment, said Yunus.
The amendment would also abrogate the powers of borrowers who are actual owners of the bank to the chairman, he said.
From now onwards, he said, Grameen Bank would be run under direct and indirect influence of the government.
Muhammad Yunus expressed the hope that someday a government would consider it to be its first task to restore the powers of Grameen Bank’s borrowers who are mostly poor women.

-With New Age input

The post It’s a black day appeared first on Dhaka Mirror.

Yunus not telling truth: Muhith

Admin — Mon, 13 Aug 2012 17:12:05 +0000

The finance minister, Abul Maal Abdul Muhith, on Sunday said that Muhammad Yunus was not telling the truth when he said that the government was out to grab Grameen Bank with its various activities and Yunus’s saying such things were harmful for the country.
‘He is running unnecessary campaigns that the government wants to take over Grameen Bank. He is not telling the truth,’ Muhith said as he addressed a discussion in the CIRDAP auditorium.
Muhith said that Yunus was running the propaganda as he could not become chairman of the Grameen Bank.
‘The government did not create any pressure on the Grameen Bank and Dr Yunus is just telling lies just because he has not been made chairman of the bank,’ he said.
Muhith said that there was also propaganda that the bank was about to collapse after Yunus had left which was not true. ‘In fact, the bank has now been at its peak in the past 10 years,’ he said. ‘Now I am seriously affected by Padma bridge project and Dr Yunus issue.’
He also said that Yunus was not the only one having contribution to micro-credit financing.
‘He expanded micro credit by up to 12 per cent at most. I have taken it further by 30 per cent and worked in the interest of people and not for any organisation,’ he said.
Muhith further alleged that Yunus had formulated such a rule for the selection committee of the Grameen Bank so that no one other than him could become its chairman.
He said that the government had taken a move to amend the ordinance of the Grameen Bank as there has been no selection committee for a year and a half to appoint its managing director.
The cabinet on August 2 approved a proposal for an amendment to the Grameen Bank Ordinance 1983, giving more power to the government-appointed chairman to choose the bank’s managing director, sidelining other board members.
The position of the managing director fell vacant after Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus was forced to step down as its chief executive by the Bangladesh Bank in 2011.

-With New Age input

The post Yunus not telling truth: Muhith appeared first on Dhaka Mirror.

Grameen fettered

Admin — Thu, 02 Aug 2012 20:40:43 +0000

Changes to ordinance give govt-appointed chairman almost absolute power to pick MD, Yunus’ income under scrutiny
The cabinet yesterday approved a proposal for amending an ordinance to give more powers to the Grameen Bank chairman to choose the managing director of the microlender.
The amendment to the Grameen Bank Ordinance 1983 will undermine the autonomy of the bank started by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Prof Muhammad Yunus.
It will give the bank’s chairman, always picked by the government, almost absolute powers to appoint the organisation’s chief executive sidelining other members of the Grameen Bank board.
In a statement yesterday, Prof Yunus expressed shock over the government move and said, “I am very disheartened to see that the poor is being deprived of the ownership of the bank they run and of the power to exercise their ownership.”
President Zillur Rahman will soon issue an ordinance with the latest changes as parliament is now in recess, Cabinet Secretary M Musharraf Hossain Bhuiyan told reporters coming out of a cabinet meeting at the Secretariat.
The cabinet directed the finance ministry to inform it immediately about the salaries and benefits that Prof Yunus received during his tenure as the bank’s managing director past the retirement age of 60 and whether those facilities were in line with the bank’s rules.
Banking and financial institutions division of the ministry will do the analysis with the help of the central bank, said the cabinet secretary.
The cabinet also asked the finance ministry to find out whether Prof Yunus fetched any foreign currencies from abroad under the wage earner scheme facility “as a government official,” said the cabinet secretary.
If so, it will be known how much foreign currency he brought as a wage earner and how much was exempted from tax, he said.
The three changes that will be brought to the ordinance will allow the bank’s chairman to form a selection committee in consultation with the board. The committee will recommend a panel of three candidates for the job of managing director, said Bhuiyan.
The candidates must have expertise in the field of rural economy or finance or microfinance to qualify for the job.
“The [proposed] amendment will help get the right candidate for the job of the bank’s managing director, and this will speed up the appointment process,” said the cabinet secretary.
Under the existing rules, the board constitutes a selection committee with three to five members, which selects a candidate for the post of managing director.
The Grameen Bank Ordinance 1983 gives preference to persons having knowledge and experience in rural economy or in Grameen Bank business.
The post of the bank’s managing director fell vacant after its founder Prof Yunus resigned in May last year following his removal from the bank he set up three decades ago to take financial services to the poor.
The changes in the ordinance will only deepen suspicions among the bank’s supporters at home and abroad that the government wants to take control of the bank.
Three members, including the chairman, represent the government on the 12-member board. The remaining nine are the bank’s borrower-members, who are elected at the grassroots level representing the bank’s 83 lakh members.
The government owns only three percent of the shares of the bank, while the remaining 97 percent is owned by the bank’s members, mostly women.
In yesterday’s cabinet meeting, the prime minister and five ministers came down hard on Prof Yunus.
The ministers, who took part in the discussion on the Nobel laureate, are Finance Minister AMA Muhith, Agriculture Minister Matia Chowdhury, Law Minister Shafique Ahmed, Textiles and Jute Minister Abdul Latif Siddique and Foreign Minister Dipu Moni, cabinet sources told The Daily Star.
The prime minister alleged that Prof Yunus had been constantly lobbying against the government both at home and abroad though her previous government helped him launch Grameenphone and gave many facilities.
“Now it seems that he has become our enemy,” a minister, who attended the meeting, quoted Hasina as saying.
The prime minister said her government would take steps to run the Grameen Bank smoothly, according to cabinet sources.
One of the ministers suggested including more tough provisions in the Grameen Bank Ordinance to take absolute control of the bank.
In response, the finance minister said Bangladesh is not an “isolated island”. He suggested that the cabinet take into consideration the global opinion on the bank. He said the bank’s performance was better in the fiscal year 2011-12.
The prime minister then said the government had no role in removing Prof Yunus from the post of the bank’s managing director. Rather, it was him who went to the court and had to quit the job after losing the legal battle.

Courtesy of The Daily Star

The post Grameen fettered appeared first on Dhaka Mirror.

Autonomy curbed

Admin — Thu, 02 Aug 2012 20:37:58 +0000

4 leading personalities censure govt move
Civil society leaders yesterday condemned the government move to curtail the autonomy of the Nobel winning Grameen Bank as an undemocratic decision that they believe would give negative signals to the world.
The cabinet approved of an amendment to the Grameen Bank Ordinance 1983, which would reduce the power of GB board, giving more authority to the chairman to choose its new managing director.
“It is a move in the wrong direction and is unlikely to help preserve the autonomy and integrity of Grameen Bank,” said Prof Wahiduddin Mahmud, a noted economist.
The success of the microcredit organisation came mostly because of its unique institutional structure, he said, adding the bank is created and empowered by a government statute and yet its management and board can function autonomously within its statutory provisions.
The government should ensure that those statutory provisions are not violated, the economist said. He, however, said he believed the proposed changes were aimed at concentrating power at the government-appointed chairman to an extent that is beyond the norm of any corporate culture.
The move would most likely change the basic character of the institution, undermining the authority of the board in which over eight million members have majority representation, said Prof Mahmud.
The government has become hostile towards Nobel laureate Prof Muhammad Yunus, civil society members said, referring to the cabinet’s order to the finance ministry to carry out an investigation into the facilities he had taken as managing director of the GB since he had passed the retirement age of 60 until his resignation in May last year.
The GB members should have given the authority to run their organisation, said Akbar Ali Khan, a former adviser to caretaker government. Nearly 97 percent shares of GB are owned by its members.
Akbar described the government move as “nationalisation of GB” that would hamper the interests of the members.
Also a former cabinet and finance secretary, Akbar said the cabinet rarely dealt with such issues.
“The country’s impression outside the world will seriously be affected,” he noted.
Hafizuddin Khan, another former adviser of caretaker government, said the government’s move to take control over the GB board was motivated.
“The board should enjoy the authority to run the Nobel winning microcredit organisation,” he said.
Hafizuddin, a member of the Trustee Board of Transparency International Bangladesh, also criticised the government’s decision to probe the issues involving Prof Yunus during his extended period in the bank.
“It is to harass him [Yunus],” he said, giving an opinion similar to that of Akbar Ali Khan that those issues were not supposed to be discussed at the cabinet meeting.
With the latest move, the government proved that it wants full control over GB, said Hossain Zillur Rahman, executive chairman of Power and Participation Research Centre.
Zillur, another former adviser of caretaker government, said the government had claimed that GB was a state-owned organisation, but its move to take control of it proved that their previous argument was wrong.
The government speak of public-private partnership, but its decision about GB and Prof Yunus would discourage the private sector to work with it.
“It will create a crisis of trust in future economic initiatives in partnership with the government. It is setting a bad precedent in economic partnership in Bangladesh,” Zillur said.
He said he hoped the government would have second thoughts before implementing its decision.

Courtesy of The Daily Star

The post Autonomy curbed appeared first on Dhaka Mirror.

Save the bank

Admin — Thu, 02 Aug 2012 20:35:25 +0000

Appeals shocked Nobel hero
Shocked. Speechless.
This is what Nobel Laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus said after the government empowered the Grameen Bank chairman in choosing a managing director for the microlender.
Here is the statement of the Grameen Bank founder:
“I had always expressed this apprehension. Now my apprehension has started to translate into a reality. I am extremely sorry that we could not be successful in forestalling this process. I am very disheartened to see that the poor is being deprived of the ownership of the bank they run and of the power to exercise their ownership.”
“I am so dejected that I have become unable to express my feelings. I am requesting the people of Bangladesh who are feeling dejected like me to tell the government that a big mistake is being done and the government should abstain itself from doing it.”
“This government decision will destroy the bank of the poor and the country’s bank of pride. I request the countrymen to come forward to protect the property of the poor and the country. I also request the poor owners of Grameen Bank to urge the government and their fellow countrymen so that they do not curb their rights to exercise ownership.”

Courtesy of The Daily Star

The post Save the bank appeared first on Dhaka Mirror.

I’m fearful of its future

Admin — Thu, 31 May 2012 04:12:34 +0000

Grameen Bank
I’m fearful of its future
Says Yunus in an open letter
Prof Muhammad Yunus yesterday urged stakeholders and the government not to take any step to change the legal structure of the Nobel-winning Grameen Bank.
In an open letter to the borrower owners of Grameen Bank, Yunus expressed his fear that steps are afoot to alter the management system of the bank.
The government on May 16 formed a four-member commission to probe Grameen Bank and its 54 associated organisations, and make recommendations on how to run the organisations in future.
“I can see clearly that the future of Grameen Bank will be at stake if the government increases its role in the bank’s management by amending the legal structure,” Yunus said in the 24-page letter.
The terms of reference, given to the commission, raise fears that Grameen Bank will never be the same again, according to Prof Yunus.
The commission has been assigned to identify institutional strengths, weaknesses and constraints of Grameen Bank over a period of 27 years from its inception in 1983 to 2010.
Yunus, who won along with the Grameen Bank the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006 for his work making small loans to poor entrepreneurs, said poor women were the real owners of Grameen Bank and they had the supreme authority to make decisions on the bank.
“To take away the decision-making power from the poor women and their ownership would derail Grameen Bank from its mission,” said the founder of the bank.
Any step to change the current structure of Grameen Bank will turn the bank into another government run or directed bank which will destroy the unique nature and character of Grameen Bank, said Yunus.
The Nobel laureate stressed the need for keeping up the current law, management structure and work policy through which Grameen Bank has become one of the world-renowned organisations.
“Grameen Bank is a disciplined bank. If it becomes a government organisation, different conflicts and vested interests may infiltrate into the bank including politicisation and bureaucratisation,” Yunus said.
He has questioned how it would be possible for the commission to complete its huge task with its inadequate manpower in just three months.
“If the commission gives wrong advice due to time-constraint and lack of experience in the field of micro-credit, the consequences might be terrible for the poor Bangladeshi women, who own 97 percent of the bank,” he said.
“This type of task is usually given to the best researchers of the best research organisations as a long-term project. To prepare the inquiry report, it is necessary to confer with people who have set up and managed such organisations. It is also necessary to talk to such organisations and those who are familiar with its operation.”
About the other organisations, Yunus said, Grameen Bank did not establish any organisation itself as the law does not permit the bank to do so.
Yunus said he created many organisations with his own initiative to address problems surrounding education, agriculture, communication, electricity and health.
“There are reasons behind the creation of these organisations. When we go to work with poor people we have to face many problems besides loans,” said Yunus.
“When I faced problems, I created a company as a way to solve it. I got such a mechanism in place so that they can operate from their own earnings and without counting on others. In that way, if any company fails it will not take others down with it,” he said.
These companies have not been created for anyone to earn profit from them. There is no scope of making personal profit from these organisations, he said.
“I have no share or ownership in Grameen or any of these companies. I have no share in Grameen Bank. So there was no scope for me to get profit from these companies, neither before nor now.”
Yunus said there should be a national consensus about Grameen Bank as it is an organisation of national pride.
“Regardless of your political affiliation or profession or age or any other circumstance you may find yourself in, we can make an effort together as citizens of Bangladesh to convince the government that changing the legal structure of Grameen Bank would most definitely be a wrong decision,” he said.

-With The Daily Star input

The post I’m fearful of its future appeared first on Dhaka Mirror.

Yunus, Abed talk garment exports with Hillary, seek free access to US

Admin — Mon, 07 May 2012 16:56:55 +0000

Nobel laureate Prof Muhammad Yunus and BRAC Chairperson Sir Fazle Hasan Abed yesterday urged US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to allow Bangladeshi garments duty-free access to the US market to help create local jobs, especially for women.
They met Hillary at a breakfast meeting at the US ambassador’s residence in Gulshan, Dhaka.
If Bangladesh’s garment exports get duty-free access to the US, it would give an impetus to women empowerment in Bangladesh, Yunus said.
“We already have major changes in women’s empowerment. If we get the access, several millions of women will get jobs. You (the US) will have to consider it from this aspect,” Yunus told reporters after the meeting.
The demand for such access to the US market, the single largest export destination of Bangladeshi products, is a much-hyped issue as Bangladesh, despite being a least developed country, pays high tariff for the access.
Bangladesh, the largest maker of apparel after China and a key garments supplier to Wal-Mart Stores and Tommy Hilfiger, pays an average 15.3 percent duty on its US exports.
Ninety-seven percent Bangladeshi goods have duty-free access to the US market, but the list does not include garments, the main export item of the country, which employs three million people, majority of them women.
Bangladesh pays the US more than $600 million in duty per year, which is almost equivalent to the annual aid the country gets from the US.
Last year, Bangladesh exported goods worth $4.59 billion to the US and imported goods worth $1.09 billion, according to the American Chamber of Commerce in Bangladesh.
Dr Yunus, the Grameen Bank founder, said the special trade treatment is not a business topic only.
“We are talking about business, but the most important thing is that it (duty-free access) will create more employment opportunities,” he said.
“This should be considered from the point that it will make women more independent,” he added.
“She has paid special attention to our demand for the duty-free access of Bangladeshi products. She has not given any immediate assurance, but said that she would consider it,” Yunus said, referring to Hillary.
From the impression of the US secretary of state, it appears that Bangladesh has a possibility of getting the duty-free access, said Sir Abed.
The comments from Prof Yunus and Sir Abed came just a week after Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina urged the US to allow such access to boost trade relations between the two countries.
“Bangladeshi products get a duty- and quota-free access to the European Union and many other developed countries. India has also provided us with the privilege for our garments products. So why not the US?” the prime minister questioned, during a meeting in Habiganj on April 30.
“The US is a big country and a big market…It is our people’s demand for a duty-free access to the US,” said Hasina.
The US offers the benefit to all the least developed countries except Bangladesh, she pointed out. “I don’t know why.”
The Grameen Bank founder said the issue of microcredit, its future and what other countries are doing about the financial tool were also discussed at the meeting.
“She wanted to know about the condition of Grameen Bank. I have explained the issue to her,” Yunus said without elaborating.
Prof Yunus also briefed Hillary on the advancements that took place among the poor women and their children in Bangladesh since her last visit to the country.
He also briefed her on the progress made by Grameen Bank and the problems the bank is facing currently.
Dr Yunus also updated Hillary on the 54 independent companies he set up, which the government plans to bring under the control of Grameen Bank.
Yunus said he mentioned the electricity crisis as a major problem for the country and they have sought support from the US in establishing a regional energy network with Nepal and Myanmar.
Bangladesh is desperately trying to meet its growing energy demand and is seeking to forge partnerships with neighbouring countries to import electricity.

-With The Daily Star input

The post Yunus, Abed talk garment exports with Hillary, seek free access to US appeared first on Dhaka Mirror.

Hillary meets Yunus today

Admin — Sun, 06 May 2012 17:31:52 +0000

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Nobel Laureate Prof Muhammad Yunus would hold a meeting early today at the residence of the US ambassador to Dhaka.
The meeting between Prof Yunus and Clinton, an ardent supporter of the pioneer of microcredit, comes almost a year after Prof Yunus resigned from Grameen Bank, which
he set up three decades ago.
The meeting would take place at a time when the financial health of Grameen Bank is looking shaky and the government is apparently trying to take over about 50 legally
independent associate organisations linked to the bank.
In March 2011, only five years after winning the Nobel Peace Prize, Prof Yunus was ignominiously thrown out of his job as managing director of the bank, which shocked
many of his admirers and supporters around the world.
“The Banker to the Poor” had challenged the legality of the central bank letter in court. But the High Court upheld Bangladesh Bank’s decision. He also had appealed
against the verdict with the Supreme Court but the decision remained unchanged.
Prof Yunus, who also received the US Presidential Medal of Freedom, the King Abdul Aziz Medal, and the Ramon Magsaysay Award, resigned on May 12 last year to avert
undue disruption in Grameen Bank activities.
Bangladesh Bank’s move to remove him came several months after a documentary film was aired on a Norwegian TV channel alleging that Grameen Bank had transferred
donors’ money, given to Grameen Bank, to another sister organisation. This generated an uproar at home and abroad.
A section of Bangladeshi media jumped to take a swipe at him publishing fabricated stories one after another. At the same time, political heat was fanned with
politicians belonging to the ruling alliance making provocative comments.
Later, Norway refuted the allegations saying no irregularities or corruption had taken place, giving Prof Yunus a clean chit.
The brazen removal of Prof Yunus from the bank has apparently started to affect profitability of its core business–a fact that was repeatedly stated by supporters of
Prof Yunus.
The bank incurred a loss of Tk 24 crore last year.
Grameen Bank is the first bank in the world, which provides money to poorer people without asking for collateral. Its 83.5 lakh borrowers, most of them women, own 97
percent of the bank.
Its microcredit operations have been copied across the world including the United States. It has lent $10.3 billion since it began operations.

-With The Daily Star input

The post Hillary meets Yunus today appeared first on Dhaka Mirror.

No Yunus

Admin — Sun, 01 Apr 2012 17:48:10 +0000

Muhith rules out Nobel hero-led search committee for Grameen Bank MD
The government yesterday dismissed the proposition of making Prof Muhammad Yunus the head of a committee to find the managing director for Grameen Bank.
“Some members [of the Grameen Bank board] proposed appointment of Dr Yunus as the chairman of the search committee. But we cannot accept this as a previous MD should not have any role in selecting his successor,” said Finance Minister AMA Muhith.
He was talking to journalists at his secretariat office after a meeting with US Ambassador Dan W Mozena.
The post of the MD fell vacant after Prof Yunus, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize along with Grameen Bank, was unceremoniously relieved of his duties at the microfinance institution in March last year. In May, he stepped down from the post in order to avert disruption in the Grameen Bank activities.
Mohammad Shahjahan is now serving as the acting MD of the bank.
“Delay has already been made regarding the appointment issue. There has been an election to the Grameen Bank board and it will now nominate the search committee,” said the finance minister.
The United States had been showing interest in Grameen Bank for long, particularly on the issue of appointing its MD, said Muhith.
“Prof Yunus is a famous name. He has done a lot of things in America and won a number of awards there. The US wants a good search committee and an amicable settlement of the appointment issue,” he said.
Muhith claimed he had tried to settle the issue amicably from the very beginning but Prof Yunus did not give the government the opportunity. “If he gives us the chance now it can be done in a satisfactory manner.”
Emerging from the meeting with the finance minister, US Ambassador Mozena said the Grameen Bank issue was on the US-Bangladesh agenda. “I am encouraged that all parties want a strong effective Grameen Bank.”
“I am very encouraged that a way will be found to make sure that Grameen Bank will be strong and will continue to bring hope to over eight million of the most vulnerable people in Bangladesh, almost all women, not entirely but almost all women,” he said.

-With The Daily Star input

The post No Yunus appeared first on Dhaka Mirror.