
Microloans for entrepreneurs in developing countries, loans that change lives - rms
http://www.kiva.org
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celoyd
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microcredit> is a good overview. It amazes me
that this doesn't get more coverage, especially after the Nobel.

One of many interesting details is that women get the majority of the loans
because they're usually far better credit risks.

~~~
dfranke
Sadly, microcredit is nowhere near profitable. Yunus et. al. are heavily
government-subsidized. And the reason most of the loans go to women is that
Yunus has a really bizarre feminist agenda. Microcredit is maybe a good way to
run a charity, but it's not a business.

<http://www.mises.org/journals/fm/Dec06.pdf>

~~~
nostrademons
The Mises article is incorrect. Grameen Bank's website (<http://www.grameen-
info.org/bank/)> contains audited financial statements. The Grameen Bank broke
even in 1984, hovered around the break-even point until 1993, and has made
steady profits since then. It made approximately $15M on revenues of $112M in
2005.

That's not particularly impressive from a financial standpoint, but it's
certainly not a charity. It's more than most Web 2.0 startups make, after all.

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felipe
Turns out microcredit banks need hackers! There is a huge cost involved in
keeping track of all those tiny loans manually, and thus they need inexpensive
and effective technology to manage their operations.

Mifos is an open-source microcredit banking system, and they need volunteers:
<http://www.grameenfoundation.org/what_we_do/technology_programs/mifos_initiative/>

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dpapathanasiou
Frontline (PBS) did a feature on Kiva which was rebroadcast here a few days
ago; you can read about it here:
<http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/blog/2006/12/a_little_goes_a.html> and see
the video here:
<http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/stories/uganda601/video_index.html>

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rms
Browsing the current and previous loans is truly fascinating. I like how there
is a story behind every loan.

Here's a good one.
[http://www.kiva.org/app.php?page=businesses&action;=about&id;=408](http://www.kiva.org/app.php?page=businesses&action=about&id=408)

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Tichy
In theory this seems great, but how does it really work? I mean what is
preventing people from just making up businesses, taking the money and
vanishing into the jungle forever?

~~~
felipe
When an individual gets a loan, the village itself is sort of "co-signing" it.
If the person defaults or runs away, the entire village's "credit score" is
affected.

This is not theory: Millions of loans were granted worldwide, and in fact the
default rate is actually lower than traditional banks in developed countries.

Note: My comments above are about microcredit in general, and not specifically
about Kiva (which I don't know much about it)

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omouse
HELLO MY NAME IS SUE FROM NIGERIA. My FATHER left ME a LOAN with KIVA. HE ALSO
GAVE ME THIS GODAWFUL NAME. PLEASE HELP.

