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Removal of Grameen Bank founder as head of the microlender draws sharp criticism
Skoll Foundation founder and chairman Jeff Skoll threw his support behind Nobel Prize winner Muhammad Yunus of Grameen Bank, who is under attack by the Bangladesh government for alleged irregularities.
Skoll said Yunus was removed from his post as managing director of Grameen Bank in a campaign being waged by the Bangladesh government against the microlender.
‘We at the Skoll Foundation stand firmly behind Yunus and offer our unequivocal support,’ Skoll told the gathering of 800 delegates in Oxford on Thursday to loud applause during the opening ceremony.
Associates of Yunus say his removal has been prompted by a government vendetta after he briefly considered a political career to challenge Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
Yunus, 70, has lodged an appeal against his dismissal after the country's high court upheld a central bank order dismissing him from the post of managing director, saying he had overstayed the normal retirement age in violation of bank law.
In panel discussion about microfinance, Roshaneh Zafar, managing director of Pakistan’s Kashf Foundation, also rallied support for Yunus.
"I personally am outraged by what is going on,” Zafar said.
Describing Yunus as “a beacon for all of us”, she urged delegates: “We need to support him and be behind him. We need to take some action. We need to have a voice behind him at this moment.”
The action against Yunus coincides with growing criticism of microlending in developing countries, including neighbouring India, with officials accusing bankers of exploiting the poor.
Yunus, 70, set up Grameen Bank and has been its managing director since 2000. Lauded abroad by politicians and financiers, he has been under attack from the government since late last year, after a Norwegian documentary alleged Grameen Bank was dodging taxes.
Yunus has denied any financial irregularities, and his supporters say he is being discredited by the government because of a feud with Hasina dating bck to 2007, when he tried to set up a political party while Bangladesh was ruled by an interim military government.
Hasina herself has called Yunus a "blood-sucker of the poor" and sharply criticised Grameen Bank's microlending practices.
Grameen Bank has provided about $10 billion in small loans to people, most of them women, to fund businesses and help them escape poverty.
Yunus, dubbed "banker to the poor", was awarded the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize for providing small loans programmes, which has led to the creation of similar schemes in other developing countries.
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