Notes Dr. Akhter Hameed Khan – The Pioneer of Microcredit

Abstract

It's hard to believe that microcredit – which has exploded into the world of finance in recent years – was considered an unfeasible concept at one time. Microcredit provides very small loans to those who have no verifiable credit history or collateral that would be acceptable to a financial institution. Prior to the microcredit methodology, banks served only the privileged and, as a result, perpetuated the gap between the poor and the rich. However, in the 1950s and ‘60s, Dr. Akhter Hameed Khan, a world-renowned social scientist from Pakistan, initiated the Comilla cooperative program, and proved to the world that it was indeed possible to provide credit to the poor - with great success no less.