People: Note of The CEO, From Bangladesh to the World
making a childhood dream come true
I remember the day back in 2006 when the world’s one of the most prestigious prizes, The Nobel Prize came home. The moment when Professor Muhammad Yunus and Grameen Bank won the Nobel Peace Prize, I was a school going kid struggling with my academic life in class six. I was surprised to see the world talking about a Bangladeshi man in the international media who won a prize. I had no clue about what’s so special about this prize and why did he even win the prize. The English accent of the news presenters was way too hard for me to understand. But I wished to see him someday and ask him what is it all about. I shifted my focus from the TV and started minding my own business.
Grameen Bank and Muhammad Yunus at the Nobel Prize Ceremony in Oslo, Norway ( 2006 )
As I was growing up, I kept hearing the name of Grameen Bank, Micro Credit or “Khudro Rin” ( in Bengali), Social Business or “ Shamajik Bebsha” ( in Bengali) and so on. The concept was not clear to me. But somewhere deep in my mind, that moment of 2006 kept chasing my curiosity.
I grew up in a town named Narayanganj. A suburban area near the capital city Dhaka. When I got into the University, I got the chance to move to Dhaka and start exploring the opportunities the city had to offer. By then I started learning about the history of Bangladesh. How a war-torn ravaged nation was burnt to ashes in 1971 and how the country has started growing from the very scratch ever since independence. The birth of a new nation in the world map came at the cost of blood and sacrifices. But the passionate and hardworking people of the country never gave up on the dreams of building the “Golden Bengal” or “Shonar Bangla”.
The historical 7th March Speech of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the founding father of Bangladesh (Museum of Independence, Dhaka )
Poverty, famine, natural disasters, drought, unemployment, illiteracy etc have been some of the most pressing issues in Bangladesh. Bangladesh is one of the most densely populated countries in the world with a population of nearly 163,368,685+ people in a land which is around the same size as New York City. Feeding this large number of people isn’t an easy job. Thanks to the hardworking farmers who have been working day and night to feed the nation. It’s not easy to provide this vast number of people with some of the basic necessities. Bangladesh is also largely affected by global climate change. Even in this dire situation, Bangladesh has opened its borders for millions of Rohingya refugees and provided them with food & shelter which many affluent nations refused to do. Bangladesh remembers 1971 and didn’t hesitate to save the people who have been facing something similar.
Bangladesh is the 2nd largest exporter of ready-made garment items in the world. The country is leading in the jute industry, agro products, ICT, pharmaceutical industry, shipbuilding and breaking industry, tourism and much more. Bangladesh is the home of Grameen Bank, Yunus Centre and world’s largest NGO BRAC with the global HQs in Dhaka.
As we all know, the inception of microcredit and social business is from a small village in southern Bangladesh named Jobra. Professor Muhammad Yunus came up with this concept when he was trying hard to get the poor people of the country get out of poverty. It was just after independence.
Grameen Bank is the reverse system of the conventional banking system. While conventional banks are focused on providing loans to people who are creditworthy, globally Grameen Bank is providing small loans to some of the poorest people ( mostly women) in the world with zero collateral to help them get out of poverty by forming a business which solves a social issue and makes money to sustain the entrepreneurs. The residue amount from the profit is reinvested to expand the business. This business model is called social business and the loans are called microcredit.
Such the concept of microcredit and social business has helped millions of people to get out of poverty, solve some of the most pressing issues in society and build entrepreneurs around the world. The concept of social business and microcredit works equally in the villages of Bangladesh and also among the poor communities in the urban heart of the USA. The very nature of poverty is the same around the world. No matter if it is Bangladesh or United Kingdom.
Getting back to my university life, I soon realized that the conventional education system doesn’t have much to offer. I started learning out of the classes in the school of life. Grabbed every opportunity of volunteering in the youth development sector. All these works made me go to the grassroot level of Bangladesh and learn from the real people who are dealing with real-life problems. Soon the idea of microcredit and social business started making sense to me. The picture of poverty was clear to me and I soon realized the need of learning from the international ecosystem.
My learning in the global market started through my participation in Future City Summit back in 2016. In the same year, I participated in VYE2016 conducted by Viet Youth Entrepreneurs in association with the Stanford Technology Ventures Program. It was one fine morning when Professor Tom Kosnik from Stanford University was delivering a lecture on social impact and how social business can change the world. The lecture was mostly based on Muhammad Yunus, Grameen Bank, and Social Business. Seeing my favorite person’s picture in the presentation made me proud.
During the lecture on Social Impact by Professor Tom Kosnik from Stanford University ( 2016 )
The name of Bangladesh was mentioned again and again. From a confused young participant at a corner of the room, I became the proudest person in the room. I proudly shouted out, “ Yes I know him, I am also from Bangladesh too”. That was one of the happiest moments of my life. The urge to meet this man grew even stronger.
I kept working in the global market since 2016. Through my work I started learning deep about the emerging and big economies, the development sector and the network kept spreading around the world.
Fast forward to 2018, one day I was having a private meeting with Mr Shazeeb M Khairul Islam who is the founder of immensely successful international social business incubator named “YY Goshti”. The HQ of YY Goshti is also in Dhaka. By then I became the global CEO of Future City Summit. We were working in the emerging nations to find solution to the city level problems. During the meeting, we came up with the decision of hosting a social business based program in Manila to find solution to the city level problems through social business model. The opportunity of having Muhammad Yunus as the keynote speaker came and we started working hard to make it an amazingly successful program.
We hosted the program in March 2019. On the first day Professor Muhammad Yunus joined us to share his keynote remarks. I went to receive him at the lobby. I couldn’t believe my eyes. Finally, the man is in front of me. I have been waiting since 2006. The humbleness and gentle gesture of this man with the beautiful smile amazed me like millions of people around the world. I was nervous and super happy!
The keynote by Muhammad Yunus was hugely enjoyed by the crowd. There were people from around the world to see him and listen to him. After the session, the crowd rushed to take pictures with him and get his autographs on his books. His work has influenced people from around the world. People from around the world love him from the heart.
Just few days later, world’s largest social business summit “Social Business Youth Summit 2019” took place in Manila. I was invited to share our works at the summit as a speaker and joined a private meeting with Muhammad Yunus to learn about how fintech can facilitate the process of banking the unbanked people.
Since then with partners like YY Goshti, SBYA Global, Social Business Academia Network we have been working on spreading the concept of social business around the world. We will keep launching new projects and programs to make people more aware of the importance of social business and social impact. Social Business can help the world to reach all the Sustainable Development Goals. It’s equally important for least developed to the most developed nations. It’s important for the world.
Through my work in the emerging nations with Future City Summit, I realized that no matter where someone comes from, anyone can achieve anything through hard work and dedication. All it takes is an open mind, big dreams and loving what you are doing. Thinking ourselves as global citizens will help us to see the bigger picture of the world. We are responsible for the betterment of our country and equally responsible to make the world a better place.
I would humbly request my fellow hardworking Bangladeshis and people from the emerging world to strongly believe in this. I would request to be open to new ideas, think outside of the box, be open to other cultures, be tolerant and keep dreaming big. The world is run by people from emerging nations. Immigrants are building big economies. No one is better than anyone else. Hard work and dedication can make it possible.
We have grown up through hardship, have been suffering from so many adversities and we have the resilience to overcome anything.
The journey has just begun. There is a lot to learn.
~This is my message from Bangladesh, to the World.
