Nobel laureate touts microcredit, but how does it work?

HALIFAX, Canada, Nov 14, 2006 (AFP) – Few people had heard of microcredit before a determined Bangladeshi economist called Muhammad Yunus won this year’s Nobel Peace Prize, but Yunus has put the industry in the spotlight as a potential poverty-busting tool. “Governments in developing countries must demonstrate a strong political commitment towards supporting microfinance as an integral tool of poverty alleviation programs,” Pakistani Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz told delegates on Sunday.

– by Justin Cole

Big banks follow Nobel
winner’s lead in lending to the poor

by Justin Cole

HALIFAX, Canada, Nov 14, 2006 (AFP) – Robert Annibale clearly enjoys his
role as a globe-trotting senior banker for US giant Citigroup, but his
clients are unusual because they have no credit histories, scant savings
and are often illiterate.

Major international banks
have traditionally shunned the world’s poorest peop