NZ’s first Yunus Social Business Centre to be at Lincoln

Nobel laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus will sign a Memorandum of Understanding at Lincoln on Monday, 10 April, to operate a social business centre at the University.

Professor Yunus is the founder of the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh, which helps alleviate poverty, through microfinancing, and lending to the country’s poor without the need for collateral, which led to him being awarded the Nobel Peace in 2006.

It will be the first Yunus Social Business Centre in New Zealand.

A social business is set up to solve a specific problem to the benefit of poor or disadvantaged members of society. Unlike a charity, they generate profit and aim to be financially self-sustaining.

The objectives of the Yunus Social Business Centre are to; build awareness of social business, and undertake training and education, provide mentoring, and support research on social business.

Centres have been established at other universities around the world, including La Trobe University, Australia, and King’s College, London.

Lincoln University Professor in Accounting and Finance, Christopher Gan said the centre would attract postgraduate students, and Professor Yunus also had an extensive network throughout the world which could help to fund research.

The opportunity to have the centre at Lincoln arose because the University already has a reputation nationally, and internationally, in the field of economic development through the Lincoln University Centre for International Development (LUCID), and the work of staff overseas, Professor Gan said.

© Scoop Media