World Bank lends $ 260 million to Bangladeshi poor

The World Bank said it had disbursed $ 260 million in small loans to 6 million poor people in Bangladesh since 1996.

The bank's micro–finance programme in Bangladesh took a major step forward in 2002 through a project entitled "Financial Services for the poorest", and then expanded gradually, it said in a statement obtained by Reuters.

Typical loans went to beggars and to help sex workers change their careers – those who would not qualify for traditional finance.

The World Bank said it had made small loans to more than 6 million poor people in Bangladesh since 1996, with women making up 90 percent of micro–credit borrowers.

The bank was following the model set by the Nobel Peace Prize winner microcredit guru professor Muhammad Yunus.

Yunus and representatives of the Grameen Bank he founded 30 years ago received the peace award jointly in the Norwegian capital, Oslo, on Sunday.

Bangladesh's government has also launched into micro–credit, the lending of small amounts of money to poor people to help them set up a business and earn an income.

Bangladesh wants to halve poverty in the country by 2015 but almost half of the south Asian country's 140 million people still live on less than $ 1 a day, officials said.