Better to give loans to women than men, says Yunus

By Chathuri Dissanayake

Founder of Grameen Bank and Nobel peace laureate Muhammad Yunu

The impact generated by giving micro finance credit to poor women is much greater than giving loans to men, founder of Grameen Bank and Nobel peace laureate Muhammad Yunus said.

Delivering the key note address at a ceremony associated with the 12th anniversary of the National Development Trust Fund in Colombo yesterday he said women contributed more to the economy of a family and the eradication of rural poverty.

He said 97 percent of the 7.3 million borrowers of the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh, were women. He said ownership of the bank itself lay in the hands of the borrowers. This was not only because women were better borrowers but they were also the key link to upgrading the economy of poor families .“I have seen that women are better handlers of money and the culture of South Asian countries is such that they give more to the family than the men.

“It is women who stay with the families in times of famine and disaster. Thus lending to women always brought more benefits to the family,” he said.