Jumbangla Desk: 'Credit is a human right. Because it is related to people's livelihood. You cannot establish the right to livelihood without ensuring the right to credit .'

Chief Adviser Professor Muhammad Yunus said these things at a sideline roundtable meeting of the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP29) in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, on Tuesday.

The chief adviser said that a farmer can become an entrepreneur if he is given credit. Every business needs money and investment. A farmer not only grows crops but also sells them in the market. If he was given access to credit, he could buy crops from other farmers and sell them to improve his livelihood.

Professor Yunus said that this would facilitate access to credit for farmers, among whom a significant number are women. Every country should have a social business banking law.

Bangladesh and the Netherlands jointly organized the event titled 'A Global Conversation: Access to Finance for Small Scale Farmers' at the Bangladesh Pavilion of the conference.

Additional Foreign Secretary Riyaz Hamidullah presided over the event. It was also attended by the Netherlands' Climate Ambassador Bourbon-Parma, Dutch Prince Jaimie Bernardo.

Yvonne Pinto, director general of the International Rice Research Institute, said at the event that global rice production has increased since farmers received loans.

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