Kiva-Rolling It Over

Three of the last four Kiva loans have just been fully repaid. And the fourth one, Ms.Ropati, the farmer in Samoa is paying back right on time. Her loan term is just longer than the others at sixteen months. When I got into Kiva, I saw the power behind their idea, but something that didn't even occur to me is the rolling over of funds. Over 99% of the borrowers fully repay their loans, and what is happening is the lenders, people like you and me, instead of cashing out, reloan to new borrowers. One year ago, people had funded $2 million worth of businesses, now that figure has passed $16 million, and a big part of that has been people reloaning their money out.
Two months ago, the extremely well-run micro-finance institute, Patan Business and Professional Women in Nepal, posted their first borrower. I had the great fortune to visit them and see how their organization operates. In those two months they have funded 68 businesses. I have been trying to become a lender for one of their loans, but each one is fully funded in 2 hours on average. So I have got to be quick to become part of one. Hopefully it will happen soon.

In the meantime, I decided on 3 new businesses. There is Jacqueline Muthoni, a tailor in Kenya, Maruja García Pinedo who runs her own small grocery store in Peru, and Angel Riveros, a welder in Paraguay. All look like great businesses to me and I would love to have the fortune to visit them someday at their shops. Another feature I like about kiva is that lenders can create their own lender page where I can view all loans made and see how I'm distributing them between different countries, sectors, and gender. Here's the page to get an idea of what I'm talking about. Another great feature are kiva certificates to give as gifts, fantastic idea for the upcoming holidays.