Yunus Centre Press Release (31 January, 2023)

Grameen America Inc has reached a new milestone of investing $3 billion in affordable business capital to women of color in financially underserved communities across the United States. Grameen America is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit microfinance organization based in New York City. It was founded by Nobel Peace Prize recipient Muhammad Yunus in 2008. Grameen America is run by former Avon Chairman and CEO Andrea Jung. The organization provides loans, savings programs, financial education, and credit establishment to women who live in poverty in the United States. All loans must be used to build small businesses.

More than 40 million people live in poverty in the United States. The federal government defines poverty as a family of four living on $25,100 or less a year. Many of these families are not able to make ends meet; they are often working at minimum wage jobs or struggling to get their small businesses off the ground, and they can’t afford health or child care. Women are disproportionately affected: More than 1 in 8 live in poverty,and among minority women, the rates are even higher.Nearly 27 percent of US households are unbanked or underbanked, meaning they do not have bank accounts and/or have limited access to mainstream financial and banking services such as credit cards and loans. Women receive only 4 percent of all small business loans from maintream financial institutions.  

Grameen America Inc marked $1 billion invested in women entrepreneurs in 2018 and hit $2 billion in loan capital distributed in 2021. This record progress is a testament to Grameen America’s legacy as the fastest-growing microfinance organization in the United States. Since 2008, Grameen America has disbursed $3 billion to more than 164,000 low income women entrepreneurs, and thereby their families,  in 25 U.S. cities.

In 2022, Jennifer Lopez joins as Grameen America’s National Ambassador to advocate for and mentor the organization’s network of over 150,000 small businesses run by women in predominantly low-income communities across the United States and commit to include 600,000 Latina entrepreneurs into the network by 2030 with US$ 14 billion in funding.

Read more about Grameen America Inc. at www.grameenamerica.org