Bringing ICT to the poor

Nobel Peace Prize winner Professor Muhammad Yunus has announced a deal involving the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) and some of the world's biggest telecommunications companies to help bring ICT to the poor.

Yunus aims to combine the power of ICT with micro-credit financing to help the poor to earn sustainable incomes.

The program is patterned after his Grameen Bank micro-credit program which provides small loans at low interest rates to millions of poor people in Bangladesh in order to stimulate entrepreneurship.

Grameen will be reaching out to more than 3000 micro-finance organizations and 100 million borrowers world wide, while the ITU will leverage on the support of its 191 member states and some 650 private sector members from around the world.