I did a post on Kiva on my blog last year and said in it that I would make a loan to a entrepreneur on the site, well I haven’t (yet) and today at church I met a man who had loaned some money to a woman in Africa who sold rice and she has not only paid back her loan but has also doubled her turnover!

Kivais a non-profit organization with a mission to connect people through loans for the sake of alleviating global poverty. Using the Internet and a worldwide network of microfinance institutions, Kiva lets individuals lend as little as $25 to help fund small businesses run by low-income entrepreneurs around the world.

Loans made on Kiva.org provide 0% interest to lenders. Kiva itself charges no interest from the borrower (though there has been discussion about collecting 2% interest from the microfinance institution involved in the future). Borrowers are charged some interest by the respective microfinance institution handling the individual loan, though Kiva.org claims to keep track of how much interest is charged and will not work with those charging unfair or exorbitant interest rates. Kiva borrowers have a historical repayment rate of 99.75%. Kiva is working with regulators to allow microfinance institutions to offer variable interest rates to lenders.

Visit Kiva here and check out my next post to hear about the loan I have made and the story behind the entrepreneur and I shall follow the progress through this blog on the entrepreneur and how she uses it to grow her business.

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