2015. March 19th Interview with Prof. Muhammad Yunus

I denne filmen på 11 min. kommer det klart fram hvordan mikrofinans kan være med å skape ansvar hos f.eks. unge som ved å bli jobbskapere i stedet for arbeidstakere tar ansvar for eget liv. I tillegg uttaler Yunus seg om hvorfor mikrofinans er viktig også i en velferdsstat som Norge og i Europa ellers, og hvorfor det må reguleres annerledes enn banker. Viktig budskap til Finanstilsynet og Norske myndigheter ellers.

Diasprenører- Diaspora som brobyggere for bærekraftig business? Et seminar om modeller, eksempler og muligheter

Fra/til dato: 20.12.11

Sted: Grensen 9 b (6 etg), Oslo

Klokkeslett: 15.30-19.00
Møteleder: Alice Ennals (Utviklingsfondet)

Bakgrunn: Dette seminaret ønsker å sette fokus på hva som skal til for at Diaspora kan lykkes som entreprenører som kan bidra til sysselsetting og økonomisk vekst i opphavsland. Temaet er i vinden og vi ser at flere land i sør ønsker å tilrettelegge for at Diaspora kan bidra med kompetanse, nettverk, kunnskap og investeringer. Men hva er egentlig suksessfaktorene? Dette ønsker vi å belyse og har invitert businesskonsulenter og diasprenører til å dele erfaring og gi konkrete råd til de som har en grunder i magen.

Program: 1600 (etter matbit)

- Iwan Zunder (business konsulent fra Nederland): How to equip Diaspora with tools to allow them to build sustainable businesses

- Unni Beate Sekkesæter (Mikrofinans Norge)- Social business og entreprenørskap, konsepter og råd til oppstart (www.credinfo.no )

- Debritu Lestau (entreprenør og nettverker) A modern business with identity- the story of how Ethiopian coffee embraces students and coffee growers in Ethiopia on the one side, with European students and consumers on the other. (www.meleyafoundation.com )

- Godwin Brown Narnor (diasprenør). Trying to make business of urban biogas and my lifestory as an entrepreneur

- Felix Osok (diasprenør). Kompetanse og nettverk som inntektskilde- fra business til økologi med NABA (the Norwegian-African Business Association) (www.norwegianafrican.no)

- Somalisk eksempel (tbc)

- Diskusjon og oppfølging

Formål: Inspirere deltakere med eksempler og konkret kunnskap og råd fra inn og utland om hva som skal til for å lykkes som diasprenør. Skape et forum for diskusjon og kontakt, og hvis interesse å planlegge et oppfølgingsforum i 2012.

Målgruppe: Seminaret er beregnet for diaspora og de som jobber med bistand og businessutvikling i sør. Forskere, studenter og ansatte i bistands- og annen statsforvaltning er også velkommen.


Deltakeravgift: 100 kr (inkludert matbit fra 1530)

Påmelding og avmelding

Påmelding skjer via Bistandstorgets nettsider www.bistandstorget.no. Trykk på relevant arrangement i boksen på høyre side og følg instruksjonene. Avmelding skjer på e-post eller telefon til kontaktperson for arrangementet.

Kontaktperson i BT: Ane Mygland, ane@bistandstorget.no, 23 16 35 99/ 99 03 17 66
Påmeldingsfrist: 20.12.11

Film on Microfinance in Norway

This film present the organisation Mikrofinans Norge - (Network Credit Norway - NCN) and features some of the users of the services offered by this membership association. NCN is targeting mainly self emplpoyed etrepreneurs in Norway with training, mentoring and access to microloans up to € 25 000 (NOK 200 000).

Documentary on Microcredit being shown by Danmarks Radio 31. January at 22:00

In my opinion it is always good with open debate about microcredit as long as the correct information is presentet. The facts below are therefore presented in relation to a documentary that will be shown in DR1 tonight at 22:00. I assume that the film offered for broadcast in Denmark is an English-language version of a film originally shown on NRK Norway on November 30, 2010. The filmmaker, Tom Heinemann, has publicly written that he was making an English-language version that would be aired in Denmark and Sweden. I am here explaining three serious respects in which the film contains false and defamatory accusations against Grameen Bank and Professor Muhammad Yunus – accusations that need to be kept in mind in relation to this film unless these false accusations have been removed already:

NORAD Aid
One principal charge made in the film relates to financial dealings between Grameen Bank and the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (NORAD), a directorate under the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The charge concerns matters that arose more than a decade ago, that were promptly addressed by Grameen Bank, the relevant Norwegian authorities and the government of Bangladesh, and that were fully and finally resolved at the time. By selective use of a few documents from that time, the film suggests that very significant sums of aid money were diverted by Grameen Bank, in violation of the conditions on which they were provided, and used for improper commercial enrichment.

I assume that you are aware that, as a consequence of the film’s airing on November 30, 2010, Norway’s Minister of International Development commissioned an urgent and comprehensive review of all NORAD’s support for Grameen Bank. This report, published on December 7, examined the relevant earlier exchanges, and concluded that the issues raised at the time by the Norwegian Embassy in Dhaka had been satisfactorily explained and resolved. See the full report here: http://www.regjeringen.no/en/dep/ud/press/news/2010/report_grameen.html?id=627366

Interest Rates
Another central charge made in the film is that Grameen Bank charges excessive interest rates. Specifically, the film in its Norwegian version accuses Grameen Bank of charging its borrowers annual interest rates of between 30% to 200%. This was and is factually incorrect. As an expert on microfinance, Alex Counts was interviewed by Mr. Heinemann on film about this issue, as was David Roodman, Senior Fellow of the Center for Global Development. Both specifically told Mr. Heinemann that his figures were wrong, but he ignored the corrections at that time. Hopefully this is corrected in this version of the film. Film interviews with Alex Counts and David Roodman show how their statements to Mr. Heinemann were willfully misrepresented in the film – for more information, see http://www.youtube.com/microfinanceresponse

In response to the unfounded assertions about interest rates in the film, Grameen Bank invited an independent expert, Chuck Waterfield of MicroFinance Transparency, to examine their rates, providing full access for that purpose. The MicroFinance Transparency report, dated January 4, 2011, is available at: http://www.mftransparency.org/pages/category/resources/pricing-certifications/. It shows, in particular, that the highest effective interest rate charged for Grameen Bank’s “basic loan” (the most expensive) is 22.84%. Other loans for higher education and housing attract substantially lower interest rates, and all loan products score an unprecedented 100% on the Transparency Index.

The Jobra Interview
The film seeks to portray Grameen Bank and Professor Yunus in a damaging light by way of interviews with individuals in Bangladesh, claiming that Professor Yunus made promises to them that were not kept, or that they have suffered in other ways at the hands of Grameen Bank due to high interest rates. The alleged suffering due to high interest rates is, as stated above, false. The film presents no real evidence to substantiate the other claims, and Professor Yunus refutes any claims made concerning him. Grameen Bank also denies such claims.

This element of the film is based on filmed interviews with individuals in Bangladesh, who are identified in the film and accompanied by commentary purporting to explain and clarify what it being said in Bangla by the interviewees. From our enquiries to date, it is evident that at least some of these interviews are not as represented in the film. For example, Mr. Heinemann claims to have interviewed the daughter of Professor Yunus’s original borrower, and, in the voiceover, claims that the original borrower died in deep poverty. After Mr. Heinemann’s film was aired on NRK Norway, an independent filmmaker, Ms. Gayle Ferraro, travelled to the place of the interview and found the person he interviewed. As can be seen from her film http://www.youtube.com/user/microfinanceresponse#p/a/u/0/1JGBQnrC-cw it turns out that the person Mr. Heinemann interviewed was not in fact who he claimed. In addition, Ms. Ferraro found that the woman who was the actual borrower described in Mr. Heinemann’s film was alive and well, and confirmed the true story of how she had been helped by Professor Yunus. Ms. Ferraro’s film shows that this part of Mr. Heinemann’s film is false.

It is surely not Grameen Bank’s or Professor Yunus’s intention to stifle debate on microfinance – indeed, the Bank, Prof. Yunus and Grameen Foundation all welcome healthy, balanced debate on the issues – but deliberate and repeated false and defamatory statements and unfounded attacks with intent to inflict harm and damage do not further that debate: they distort it. They feed sensationalism and confusion, and they damage the progress that they and all responsible microfinance institutions have made in helping millions of the world’s poorest citizens lift themselves from poverty. Some of the wider ramifications of this discussion are not for this letter, but are expressed in a recent article by Professor Yunus in the New York Times, which can be found at http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/15/opinion/15yunus.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=yunus&st=cse

You may not be aware that Grameen Bank is 95% owned by more than 8 million borrowers and members of the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh. About 4% is owned by the Government of Bangladesh. The borrowers and members of the Grameen bank are 97% women, who come from the poorest sectors of Bangladesh. To these people, Grameen Bank is a vital resource that enables them to improve the lives of themselves and their families. Attacks upon Grameen Bank directly harm the interests of these people.

Fakta om hva som skjedde med Grameen og Yunus

Som en nær venn av Yunus gjennom 16 år har jeg god kjennskap til hvordan Yunus og Grameen opererer. Bildet som ble gitt i Brennpunkt dokumentaren «Fanget i mikrogjeld» gir et veldig ensidig bilde. Det Grameen Bank gjorde i 1998 var helt legitim om man ser på dokumentasjon fra Norad den 7/12 2010 og en forklaring fra Yunus senteret.
Pengene ble overført til Grameen Kalyan som så lånte dem direkte tilbake til Grameen Bank hvor midlene ble brukt til de formål de var ment for fra starten. Imidlertid førte transaksjonen til en viktig effekt: Grameen Bank betalt e 2% renter for pengene, og disse renteinntektene gjorde det mulig å bl.a. bygge en rekke helsesentre rundt i Bangladesh for bankens medlemmer. Denne virksomheten ble faktisk selværende etter en tid. Du kan lese mer om det i denne artikkelen fra frittstående forskere:
http://www.microcapital.org/microcapital-story-grameen-kalyan-offers-health-microinsurance-for-usd-173-per-year-and-partners-with-pfizer-inc-ge-healthcare-and-mayo-clinic-is-it-economically-viable/ Pengene ble altså brukt i tråd med forutsetningene fra NORAD, og det er IKKE snakk om at Yunus har tatt penger til andre formål enn avtalt, og han har ikke brutt noen form for revisjons regler heller. Dokumentaren gir et helt skjevt bilde av det som skjedde.

Effektiv rente i Grameen er maks 22% ikke 30% som det blir sagt i dokumentaren. Se mer om deres renter her: http://www.grameen.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=26&Itemid=175

Oppsummering om renter fra Grameens hjemmeside:

Low Interest Rates
Government of Bangladesh has fixed interest rate for government-run microcredit programmes at 11 per cent at flat rate. It amounts to about 22 per cent at declining basis. Grameen Bank's interest rate is lower than government rate.

There are four interest rates for loans from Grameen Bank : 20% for income generating loans, 8% for housing loans, 5% for student loans, and 0% (interest-free) loans for Struggling Members (beggars). All interests are simple interest, calculated on declining balance method. This means, if a borrower takes an income-generating loan of say, Tk 1,000, and pays back the entire amount within a year in weekly instalments, she'll pay a total amount of Tk 1,100, i.e. Tk 1,000 as principal, plus Tk 100 as interest for the year, equivalent to 10% flat rate.

Jeg har selv sett en rekke eksempler på bedring for folk i Bangladesh og andre steder etter at de har brukt mikrolån til å starte EGEN NÆRINGSVIRKSOMHET som bringer nye inntekter til personen. Poenget er at mikrofinans som brukes ukritisk til forbruk er ikke i tråd med intensjonene. Det kan sammenliknes med folk som handler over evne med kredittkort her hjemme. Det kan føre til gjeldskrise uansett om man bor i Norge eller i Bangladesh. Ideen med mikrofinans er at det skal være oppfølging av bruken av lånene, kursing/veiledning er også en del av konseptet. Uten denne delen kan mye gå galt. Det kan være sunt med en debatt om bruken av mikrofinans lån internasjonalt fordi enkelte missbruker konseptet, men det er ikke tilfelle med Grameen Bank. Debatt er sunt for også mikrofinans sektoren, men denne dokumentaren ga kun et ensidig bilde av situasjonen. Hadde den vært mer balansert ville seerne fått et helt annet og mer riktig inntrykk.