You Too Can Become a Micro-Lender

Now you too can become a micro-lender to the working poor with Kiva. I just learned about Kiva this past week and I find it just incredible. As the websites describes it, “Kiva lets you connect with and loan money to unique small businesses in the developing world. By choosing a business on Kiva.org, you can “sponsor a business” and help the world’s working poor make great strides towards economic independence. Throughout the course of the loan (usually 6-12 months), you can receive email journal updates from the business you’ve sponsored. As loans are repaid, you get your loan money back.”

The working poor announce that they need a few hundred dollars to do a very specific project. A micro-lender like you can contribute $25 to help make it happen through Kiva. What are the results? Impressive. It takes less than two days for the average entrepreneur in a developing country to get a loan and the repayment rate on the $10 million invested so far is 99.7 percent.

Here are a few personal stories. Minawar in Azerbaijan needs help buying a cow to breed cattle. Done. Cecilia in Mexico needs $500 to build a fence. Done. Janet in Colorado Springs has made eight small loans to women in the Ivory Coast, Togo, Azerbaijan, and Samoa. Maclovia in Ecuador has eleven micro-lenders from four countries and expresses her gratitute for the $600 in loans she received to sew school uniforms.

Let me get this straight. I can become a micro-lender for $25, the repayment rate is 99%, and when I get repaid, I can put the money back into a new loan for another entrepreneur or just get the money back? Yep. All I’m doing is offering a tiny fraction of my liquidity to help change the lives of the working poor in developing countries.