Kiva.org is perhaps the leader in the field of microcredit online. Launched just over a year ago by two California idealists, Kiva (“unity” in Swahili) started out listing just seven Ugandan entrepreneurs as applicants, and has since brokered $2.5 million in loans to thousands of businesses. By 2008, it expects to surpass $10 million.
With as little as $25, users lend to business owners of their choice, whether a seamstress in India or a juice seller in Mexico. Money is transferred through handpicked microfinance institutions, which screen local applicants, and oversee repayment. Returns are typically about 16 percent for a one-year loan, but that’s not really the point. One loan, for example, helped a Ugandan fish seller afford a bus to the wholesale market on the Nile, where the savings mean everything to her.
