Top economist aims to open bank for city's poor
Gordon Thomson
6 Jul 2010
The man known as the banker to the poor of Bangladesh wants to open a branch in one of the most-deprived areas of Glasgow.
Sighthill has been identified as a possible location for Grameen Bank Glasgow which would be the first of its kind in the UK and one of only a few outside the sub-continent.
Nobel Prize winner Professor Muhammad Yunus is in talks with potential stakeholders at Glasgow Caledonian University. Also at the meeting was Scotland's Finance Secretary John Swinney.
Â
Grameen Bank Glasgow would be the first in Britain to offer small, low-cost loans to budding entrepreneurs too poor to qualify for traditional credit. The move comes just weeks after the UK's Coalition Government warned of tough times ahead as attempts are made to tackle Britain's multi-billion pound debt.
Professor Yunus said: "By providing small loans on suitable terms, we have shown that even the poorest of the poor can bring about their own social and economic advancement.
"Scotland is a proud and enterprising country - but there are pockets of shocking poverty. If, by using microcredit, we can help the poorest people get off welfare and realise their potential as human beings, then we must take the opportunity and we must take it now."
The anti-poverty campaigner is backed by Professor Pamela Gillies, principal and vice-chancellor of Glasgow Caledonian University, who said: "Our university is committed to our social mission, ‘for the common weal' and we have been inspired by the success of Professor Yunus in changing lives in the poorest communities. Through our education and research collaborations, we are determined to help Professor Yunus realise his goals of poverty-alleviation and reduced social and health inequalities."
The origin of Grameen Bank can be traced back to 1976 when Professor Yunus, Head of the Rural Economics Programme at the University of Chittagong, set it up in poverty-stricken Bangladesh.
By making available small loans at low interest rates to mostly female borrowers, it has helped transform the lives of more than 100 million families.
Today was also the launch at the university of the Yunus Centre in Social Business and Health, to evaluate the social and health impacts of micro-finance. Health economist Professor Cam Donaldson, formerly of the Institute of Health & Society at Newcastle University, will head the research on the social business creation on the lives of disadvantaged communities.
Professor Gillies added: "The leading-edge research carried out at the Yunus Centre will keep Glasgow Caledonian University at the forefront of health research in the UK, and maintain this city's reputation as the home of groundbreaking economics.
"Through this partnership, Glasgow Caledonian will play a central role in advancing a new phase in economic and health development thinking."
Â
Â
