Muhammad Yunus

Muhammad Yunus was born on June 28, 1940, in Chittagong, Bengal, Bangladesh. He studied economics at the University of Dhaka from 1957 to 1961 and completed his Ph.D. at Vanderbilt University in the USA. During the 1970s, Yunus focused on combating poverty and hunger in his country. In 1976, during a visit to the village of Jobra, Yunus discovered that very small loans could significantly improve the life of a poor person. This realization led him to establish the Grameen Bank in 1983, introducing the concepts of "microcredit" and "microfinance." In 2006, Muhammad Yunus and his bank were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for "creating economic and social opportunities for the poor, especially for women, through the provision of small loans and guarantees," earning him the title "the banker to the poor."