Who is Muhammad Yunus, rural microlending pioneer chosen to lead Bangladesh?

Once called a ‘bloodsucker’ by Sheikh Hasina, the Nobel laureate will now lead Bangladesh as the head of an interim government

Muhammad Yunus has been named the head of Bangladesh's interim government after prime minister Sheikh Hasina fled the country following a student-led popular uprising.

The 84-year-old microlending champion, who Ms Hasina considered one of her greatest rivals, has been handed the Herculean task of filling the power vacuum in Bangladesh, as the country of 170 million people struggles with unemployment and rising inflation.

His name was proposed by student group leaders and accepted by president Mohammed Shahabuddin following deliberation with military chiefs, political parties, business leaders, and civil society members.

The anti-job reservation protests that culminated in the resignation of Ms Hasina saw at least 440 people killed in a three-way violence between the students, law enforcement officers, and the student wing of the ruling party, according to Bangladeshi daily Prothom Alo.

"If action is needed in Bangladesh, for my country and for the courage of my people, then I will take it,” Mr Yunus, who was in Paris at the time the mass protests engulfed the South Asian nation, told AFP. Mr Yunus called Ms Hasina’s resignation the country's "second liberation day".

Asif Mahmud, a key leader of the Students Against Discrimination group, wrote: “In Dr Yunus, we trust.” Mr Yunus, considered one of the fiercest critics of Ms Hasina, has been booked in more than 200 cases, including forgery, money laundering, and embezzlement during Ms Hasina’s 15-year-long administration.

Mr Yunus has been credited for helping lift millions out of poverty by providing small loans of less than £80 to rural people through his Grameen Bank, which was founded in 1983. The bank’s success in lifting people out of poverty led to similar microfinancing efforts in other countries.

Ms Hasina, however, had accused him of “sucking blood” from the poor in 2011.

Ms Hasina's rivalry began when Mr Yusuf launched his political party to fight both the Awami League and the ruling Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), just a year after being accorded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006 for his work developing microcredit markets.

"Is it a crime for a citizen to try to make a political party?" Mr Yunus asked this year, saying he dropped the idea within 10 weeks after realising he was not suited to politics.

"Restarting will be very painful because we have brought it to a point where it has completely disappeared," he told Reuters, criticising the ruling government's bid to stamp out the political dissent following the January elections when Ms Hasina secured her fourth-term in office as the opposition parties boycotted the election.

Over the years Ms Hasina has accused him of using force and other means to recover loans from poor rural women as the head of Grameen Bank. Mr Yunus denied the allegations, calling them "made up stories".

Ms Hasina’s government began reviewing the bank’s activities in 2011 and Mr Yunus was fired as managing director for allegedly violating government retirement regulations. He was put on trial in 2013 on charges of receiving money without government permission, including his Nobel Prize and royalties from a book.

He later faced more charges involving other companies he created, including Grameen Telecom, which is part of the country’s largest mobile phone company, GrameenPhone, a subsidiary of Norwegian telecom giant Telenor.

In 2023, some former Grameen Telecom workers filed a case against Mr Yunus accusing him of siphoning off their job benefits. He denied the accusations.

Earlier this year, a special judge’s court in Bangladesh indicted Mr Yunus and 13 others in a £1.6m embezzlement case. Mr Yunus pleaded not guilty and is out on bail for now.

His supporters say he has been targeted because of his frosty relations with Ms Hasina.

Born in 1940 in Chittagong, a seaport city in Bangladesh, he went on to receive his PhD from the Vanderbilt University in the US and taught there briefly before returning to Bangladesh.

Mr Yunus in 2004 told the Associated Press that he had a “eureka movement” to establish Grameen Bank when he met a poor woman weaving bamboo stools who was struggling to pay her debts. “I couldn’t understand how she could be so poor when she was making such beautiful things,” he recalled.