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Microlending review – Kiva wins

Kivoreview

Slate has just done a review of microlending services – that provide small loans to entrepreneurs in developing countries – and Kiva has come out top. I’m glad about that, because I actually lent some money to the scheme after we featured it on the Ferret a while back (see, we do eat our own dogfood so to speak) and thought it was a great idea and superbly done. Already the entrepreneurs I lent to have started to pay back the loan and I guess I’ll just rotate the money around the system rather than take it back out when it all finally gets repaid.

 Finally: microlending as I’d imagined it. Kiva (agreement or unity in Swahili) lets lenders choose from individual borrowers, who are vetted internationally by local microlenders. Started as a side project in 2004 by a married couple, neither the lender nor Kiva takes a cut of the interest, saving it all for the local lender to administer to the borrowers day-to-day.

3 Comments

  • typo? “Kivo wins”

  • Thanks Mike, now corrected. :-)

  • I logged into my KIva account today and ALL MY MONEY AND LOANS WERE GONE! I can't get through to get a response – they don't answer their phones and yoiu get a don't reply email.

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