The gist of the Yunus-Akula disagreement is that Yunus is critical of SKS’s business model. He described its IPO as “Pushing microfinance in the loansharking direction. It’s not mission drift. It’s endangering the whole mission.”
Akula advocates that the best way to scale up operations is by going to the money markets. Yunus says that in doing so, one is giving ownership of the institution to people other than the customers, hence raising the possibility that the owners will not act in the best interests of this group.
He says that Grameen, unlike SKS, is owned by its borrowers, and hence profit goes back to them. It is comprised of local savings – something Akula points out that SKS cannot do because the Indian government does not allow it.
