Matchmaking … for microlenders

Kiva.org will help you find a partner. A business partner, that is.

Instead of browsing the profiles of potential love interests, do-gooders can look through the photos and business plans of small-scale entrepreneurs in developing countries. Agnes Cobbina of Ghana would like a $850 loan for her hair salon. Svetlana Revika of Ukraine would like a $500 loan for her men’s clothing business. You can lend, say, $50 to Cobbina, or $25 each to Cobbina and Revika. (For more details about how the loans are made, check out FP‘s recent piece about Kiva.org.)

Expect repayment of your loan within six to 12 months. To date, Kiva.org’s repayment rate is 100%.

While most lenders will never personally meet the entrepreneurs they fund, New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof recently traveled to Afghanistan to find his business partner, a baker in Kabul, and he made a wonderful video of the encounter. He, along with Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus, are overturning the conventional wisdom that loaning to the poor is a bad idea.

And now, Kiva.org is proving that lending to the poor is for everyone, not just for Noble Prize winners and NGOs.