Infographic: Behind Micro-Financing – How You Can Change The World With $20

In 1976, Bangladeshi banker and economist Muhammad Yunus embarked on a revolutionary idea designed to help lift people out of poverty. The Grameen Bank project came into operation in 1983 with the following objectives:

In 1976, Bangladeshi banker and economist Muhammad Yunus embarked on a revolutionary idea designed to help lift people out of poverty. The Grameen Bank project came into operation in 1983 with the following objectives:

• extend banking facilities to poor men and women;
• eliminate the exploitation of the poor by money lenders;
• create opportunities for self-employment for the vast multitude of unemployed people in rural Bangladesh;
• bring the disadvantaged, mostly the women from the poorest households, within the fold of an organizational format which they can understand and manage by themselves; and
• reverse the age-old vicious circle of “low income, low saving & low investment”, into virtuous circle of “low income, injection of credit, investment, more income, more savings, more investment, more income”.

The process of this was termed “Micro-financing”, which fundamentally means offering to financial services to micro-entrepreneurs and small businesses, who may not have access to larger banking and related services due to the high transaction costs involved.

Today, Grameen Bank is believed to have served over 50 million people; with the bank claiming that at least 48 percent of them have escaped poverty since.

Check out the infographic below, by creditscore.net, which explores how micro-financing, or micro-lending, works and find out how you can change someone’s life by loaning just $20.

Related: Yunus: Re-Orienting Micro-Credit for People, Not Profit

Related: Micro-Finance Industry ‘Blood Suckers’ Encounter Growing Global Hostility

Related: Infographic: How Bill Gates Is Personally Saving The World

Source: Creditscore.net