The Grameen Bank Programme which was started in 1976 in the  village of Johra by Dr. Mohammed Yunus, the then Director of  the Rural Economics Programme of the Department of  Economics in Chittagong University. It was set out to provide Credit to the rural landless poor for income generating activities and offered it to them at the low interest rate of sixteen per cent. Because they lack the collateral, the poor are normally barred from obtaining credit from official institutions. They are then forced to borrow from the private sector at exorbitant interest rates.