Microfinance Opportunity for Sustainable Tourism in Poor Countries
Kiva may represent a real opportunity for small local tourism entrepreneurs in developing countries to get the money to start a tourism-related business.
Kiva Microfunds is an organization that allows people to lend money via the Internet to small businesses in developing countries.
It is a non-profit organization headquartered in San Francisco, supported by donations from its users and through partnerships with businesses and other institutions.
It expects to be self-sustaining by the end of 2008.
Kiva allows microfinance institutions around the world, called “Field Partners”, to post profiles of qualified local entrepreneurs on its website.
Potential lenders browse and choose an entrepreneur they wish to fund. Kiva aggregates loan capital from individual lenders and transfers it to the appropriate Field Partners to disburse and administer. As the entrepreneurs repay their loans, the Field Partners remit funds back to Kiva.
Once a loan is fully repaid, the Kiva lenders can withdraw their principal or re-loan it to another entrepreneur.
Lenders’ funds are transferred to Kiva through PayPal, which does not collect its usual fees in this case.
Field Partners generally charge interest from their borrowers, although Kiva claims to keep track of how much interest is charged and will not work with those charging unfair interest rates.
Kiva lenders do not receive any interest because of US Government regulations.
Kiva claims that its borrowers have a historical repayment rate of about 99.7%.[6]
Kiva was founded in October 2005 by Matt and Jessica Flannery. It is run by a team with experience in microfinance and technology. The founders came up with the idea for Kiva, which means “unity†in Swahili, after spending time in East Africa
* Kiva was featured at the 2006 Clinton Global Initiative and the 2006 Global Microcredit Summit.
* Nicholas D. Kristof wrote about the organization in “You, Too, Can Be a Banker to the Poor”, New York Times, 27 March 2007. [10]
* Former US President Bill Clinton exhorted the students of Brandeis University to use Kiva in a speech given on December 3rd, 2007.
* Frontline and The Oprah Winfrey Show had segments devoted to Kiva.
* Kiva is mentioned in Giving: How Each of Us Can Change the World, by Bill Clinton.
* “Lending hope over the Web” Los Angeles Times archive article, October 18th, 2007
* The founders were on the Oprah Winfrey Show November 2007 “Oprah Features Kiva Founders”.
* “Kiva PR Director Fiona Ramsey” was interviewed on “CBC Radio One’s, SearchEngine”.
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