Professor Muhammad Yunus was the guest speaker at an event hosted by the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts (NESTA) in London yesterday, May 24, 2011. About 180 people, consisting of Members of Parliament, researchers, business leaders, CEOs and students, attended this event. Participants interacted through Twitter, posting questions, comments as Liam Black, board member of NESTA, interviewed Professor Yunus. Annette Brooke, the Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on micro finance attended the event as well. This event was live-streamed to the Internet.

During his interview, Professor Yunus discussed how Social Business had been pioneered with the intention of harnessing the power, creativity and dynamism of the youth and business world and using that to solve social and economic problems that afflict peoples around the world.

NESTA is an independent body whose mission is to make UK's economy more innovative. NESTA is a £300 million fund whose primary purpose is to support social enterprise in the UK.

During his day in London, Professor Yunus met Ed Miliband, the Leader of the Labour Party at the latter's office. They discussed how to promote pro-poor development and how best to use social business to address social problems. Professor Yunus also met with Steve Hilton, Director of Strategy to the Prime Minister David Cameron at No. 10 Downing St.

Before his departure from the UK, Professor Yunus was also interviewed by David Frost for the David Frost Show. This will be aired at a later date.

The Daily Star (DS): You have often said misconceptions float around Grameen Bank. What are they? Which misconceptions upset you the most?

Muhammad Yunus (MY): The very common misconception is, Grameen is an NGO, but it is not an NGO because it is a commercial organisation. It has owners and all the features of a business. Grameen Bank is a special organisation, not just another bank. But people like to see it in their own way and put a label on it.

Some think that Professor Yunus owns this bank and is earning a lot of money out of it. I do not own a single share in the bank. I was just an employee.

Now the government is promoting an idea that it is a government bank, which never existed in the minds of the people. Even the review committee report gives the impression that it is a government bank and their entire mental setup was based on the misconception that we are public servants.

To call it a government bank, it has to be owned by the government as the majority shareholder. Even in private banks, the government may have some shares. It does not make a private bank a government bank. In Grameen Bank, the government has effectively a 3.5 percent share, while 96.5 percent shares belong to the borrowers.

The only argument the government is using to try to justify its claim is that Grameen Bank is created under a special law of the government. Even Asian University for Women in Chittagong has been created under a special law. But it is not a government university. It is a private university. The vice-chancellor of the university is not a public servant. How come suddenly we have become public servants?

Grameen Bank is a bank under a charter. That the government created a charter does not mean it is a government bank. It is another misconception that is floating around.

The other misconception is this bank is run by foreign donations. People think that Professor Yunus goes around the world and brings in money, but that is a gross misunderstanding. Since 1995, GB has not received any money from outside. At that time, it was decided unilaterally not to receive money from outside. The money now comes from deposits and is lent to borrowers.

Thirty-five years ago, I did not know that I would start a bank, and that I would lend to poor people, especially to poor rural women. Like many other teachers, I was busy teaching in the classroom, far from the realities on the ground. But Jobra village took my future into a completely different direction. I saw, first hand, how the loan sharks enslaved the villagers; I thought that if I were to lend money to the poor, then the villagers could be free from the grasp of the loan sharks. That is what I did. I never imagined that this would become my calling in life. I learned a lot sitting and talking with the women of Jobra; I came to know about things that I had never imagined. I longed to do whatever I could to help them. With my students, I was able to help the women in a small way. Acting as the guarantor, I was able to arrange loans from the bank for the poor people of the village. Alongside the loans, I added a savings program. At that time, women in the village did not have the capacity to save. The savings program started with 25 paisa in savings per week. Today the total amount of savings by the borrowers stands at 6 billion Taka!

Our members, when we started, did not know how to read or write. We started to teach them to write their name, with sticks in the dirt. I then created the Grameen Bank Project. At the initiative of Bangladesh Bank, I took what I was doing in Jobra to Tangail. In the villages across Tangail, I shared with the women of what was happening in Jobra. They too became eager and expressed their wish to do the same thing. From Tangail to Rangpur, Patuakhali, Dhaka, Rajshahi our work expanded. Gradually you, too, came and joined Grameen Bank.

We organized workshops. At these workshops, you told me stories about your lives. You told me about the sadness that you have had to bear. Tears fell from your eyes as you told me your stories. You made songs of your sadness and sang them for me. To turn around your lives, together all of you came to decisions on what you had to do. At these workshops, I collected and noted down the decisions that you reached, and told other women of these decisions. From these, the "Sixteen Decisions" came into being. Those "Sixteen Decisions" have become a part of Grameen Bank. "At our son's wedding we will not take dowry; we will not take dowry. At our daughter's wedding we will not pay dowry; we will not pay dowry." "We will educate our children, at least up to class twelve." "Discipline, Unity, Courage and Hard work - in all walks of our lives", "We shall drink water from the tube well; if it is not available, we shall boil water and drink it". These are just some of the decisions.

We have worked together for many years. In Jobra village, we went to the poor to listen to the misery and helplessness caused to them by the loans from the loan sharks. Their stories gave us the idea of providing loans to them. Without knowing anything about giving loans to anyone, we plunged into it. With all of you by my side, we learnt as we went along; we devised our own procedures along the way. Out of this Grameen Bank was born. Today it has become a globally recognised and respected organisation. It is thus not unreasonable that today when we say good-bye, we become emotional. But when we think, we realize that we are not really separating from each other in a way that will create a distance between us. Only our institutional relationship is snapped. But the personal relationship, built over many years under that institutional relationship, still remains. I had wanted to formally end my institutional relationship with you before. I had wanted to retire from Grameen Bank but the Board did not allow me to do that. Many of you had written to me at that time insisting that I should continue in my position.

We have built a Nobel winning organization

Over the past 35 years, we have managed to achieve something that was thought impossible. We have transformed a tiny, personal project into a Nobel winning organization. And by accomplishing this, we gave Bangladesh a place of pride and honour in the international arena. The world has accepted our theoretical structure and practical approach; and both rich and the poor countries have adopted microcredit in their fight against poverty.

It is a matter of pride for all of you that you are the employees of a Nobel Prize winning organization. But more than that, it is a matter of even greater pride that all of you are the creators of the only Nobel Prize winning bank in the whole world. In the entire world only a fortunate few such as you, are entitled to this rare pride and achievement. But that also give you an important responsibility. You must take up the responsibility to protect your creation, ensure that the progress of the Bank continues without interruption.

Handing-over of the Charge of Managing Director

I am today relinquishing the post of Managing Director of Grameen Bank on the basis that the Deputy Managing Director Mrs. Nurjahan Begum would hold charge until a Managing Director is appointed in accordance with the procedures under section 14 of the Grameen Bank ordinance. Since the board of Grameen Bank is my appointing authority, it may take appropriate steps.

I have still not received the Appellate Division's full order. I am taking this step without prejudice to the legal issues raised before the Supreme Court, and in order to prevent undue disruption of the activities of Grameen Bank and to ensure my colleagues and our 8 million members, and owners of the bank, are not subjected to any difficulty in discharging their responsibilities.

I hope Grameen Bank will continue to operate maintaining its independence and character under the Grameen Bank Ordinance and move towards even greater success.

(Signed)
(Dr. Muhammad Yunus)
Managing Director
Grameen Bank

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