Prof Abdul Hannan Appointed as Grameen Bank Chairman

Professor Abdul Hannan Chowdhury from the School of Business and Economics at North South University has been appointed as the new chairman of Grameen Bank. The Financial Institutions Division (FID) under the Ministry of Finance confirmed the appointment in a notification issued on Tuesday.

This decision follows the termination of the employment contract of the previous chairman, AKM Saiful Majid, on August 20. Saiful Majid, a professor at the Institute of Business Administration (IBA) at Dhaka University, had held the position since his first appointment by the government on March 16, 2020. Initially appointed for two years, he was subsequently reappointed twice, most recently in April this year.

In a separate development, the government also appointed Farhana Ferdowsi, an associate professor at Southeast University, as a director on Grameen Bank’s board of directors. At the same time, the appointment of Mohammad Salah Uddin as a director was cancelled.

Grameen Bank, a pioneering microfinance institution, was established in 1983 by Professor Muhammad Yunus, the Nobel laureate and currently an adviser to the interim government.