Bangladesh, Yunus has a huge task: his future is shrouded in mystery

Mohammed Yunusappointed interim Prime Minister to try to bring his country, the Bangladeshin democratic elections he as usual has an immense task ahead of him – perhaps more complicated than the one that led him to found the Grameen Bankwhich earned him the Nobel Peace Prize and the epithet of the poor man’s banker, but which in reality should have been called the banker of Trust. In fact his concept of microcredit It is based on the idea of ​​financing projects without asking for mortgages.

In his books Yunus says that he prefers to finance projects of women’s groups with microcredit. Simplifying his thinking one could say: women are hardworkingif you lend them money they use it to buy a sewing machine, oxen to work the land or to start simple but efficient economic activities, while men would spend the money buying a motorbike, on alcohol, gambling or in a brothel. Crude but unfortunately true. Its small and widespread branches practice a market interest, and in some cases even higher, but the real lever of their success is given by the fact that they don’t ask for anything in pledgeafter all, the people who get it would have nothing of value to pledge. Trust is repaid with a return of money, even with very small installments, which normally exceeds 95%, with a solvency percentage clearly superior to that of all the banks in the world.

The story of Mohammad Yunus recalls the figure of Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus, recalled in 458 BC by the Roman Republic to govern after having already been ousted once on charges not very different from those that had brought Yunus to the brink of prison. His future is shrouded in mystery, given that behind him loom once again the military and the old political and financial powers. To tell the truth, his idea of ​​a bank is not entirely new and in some ways recalls the rural Islamic banks, a failed attempt to provide credit on favourable terms. human to the peasants, which as a concept was opposed to the practice of past bankers of other faiths, mostly considered loan sharks.

Bangladesh is a country very poorwhich we remember for the famines, for the floods that kill thousands of people almost every year and also for the exploitation of the workforce that 11 years ago led to a real massacre of workers, for the collapse of a building overloaded with machinery, in whose textile production some of the world’s major brands were involved, including ours Benetton.

It will not be easy for this old professor to bring the mandate assigned to him to success, his powerful adversaries will not give up their weapons easily. On his side, Yunus has the support of university students and thousands of families who in the past have been helped by his proximity banks. While wishing him well on the treacherous path he will have to travel, I still wonder why he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize and not the one for Economics, given that Yunus was one of the few who managed to succeed by putting an idea into practice. revolutionarybut perhaps trust and gratitude are not considered precious currency today, to continue talking about banks.