Billionaire, Nobel Prize Winner Team Up to Help Poor Mexicans

By VOA News,  30 September 2008
   
One of the world's wealthiest men is teaming up with a Nobel Peace Prize winner to help impoverished people in Mexico.

Mexican telecom mogul Carlos Slim and microfinance expert Muhammad Yunus said Monday that they will open a bank in Mexico to grant small loans to people who are too poor to qualify for traditional loans.

The funds, known as micro-credit loans, come with low interest rates and are intended to help poor families start income-generating projects.

Slim says the project has $45 millions in initial funding, and the men plan to give out 80,000 loans in the first phase.

Yunus, an economist, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006. He founded Grameen Bank in Bangladesh more than 30 years ago.

The Grameen Bank has helped reduce poverty in Bangladesh. Nearly all the recipients of its money are women.

Some information for this report provided by Reuters.

Link:

http://www.voanews.com/english/2008-09-30-voa7.cfm