The sacking of Bangladesh’s Nobel prize winner Muhammad Yunus from the Grameen Bank he founded could cause the microfinance institution to collapse, his lawyers told the country’s Supreme Court Tuesday.
Yunus, who created the concept of tackling poverty by offering small cash credits to villagers, was fired as Grameen’s managing director on March 2 by an order from the Bangladeshi central bank.
Yunus said the main priority should be to maintain the stability of the Grameen Bank, which has more than eight million borrowers, most of them rural women.
– The important thing for Grameen Bank right now is transition (overgangsperioden) so that the bank continues to function smoothly without any kind of shock or uncomfortable feeling about it. That is what we should be concentrating on, he said.
Meanwhile, Bangladesh’s Supreme Court has delayed arguments on whether Yunus can retain his job at the microfinance bank he founded. Yunus’s lawyer Kamal Hossain said the Supreme Court delayed Tuesday’s hearing for two weeks as necessary court papers were not available.
Kilde: www.worldbank.org
