Did the Bangladeshi microfinance revolution of the 1970s-80s succeed in financial inclusion?

Post-independence from Pakistan in 1971, Bangladesh faced an economic crisis. According to Time Magazine, about ‘6,000,000 homes had been destroyed, and nearly 1,400,000 farm families have been left without tools or animals to work their lands.’. These economic liabilities culminated into the great famine of 1974. Rising costs of rice, governmental corruption, and heavy flooding along the Brahmaputra River drove the nation into ‘one of the worst famines in the 20th century’, leading to deaths of >1.5 million. At the time, Mohammad Yunus, a lecturer at Chittagong University utilised the economic concept that gaining access to credit increased personable profitability, giving a loan of $27 to 42 families, allowing them to purchase agricultural equipment, of which profit generated could be paid back, allowing the cycle to continue. This charitable project expanded to wider villages and communities, eventually being ordained by the government in 1981 as Grameenbank. According to the Royal Economic Society, today, 8-10 million households across the world benefit from ”microlending” programmes pioneered by the Grameenbank, with default rates lying around 2-8% compared to 60-70% for other loans. Despite this success, some argue that the associated interest within these loans have isolated the extreme poor and religious people within Bangladesh, and other Islamic-friendly loaning systems should be considered to tackle these issues.