Microfinance A Business Online To Change a Life
A microfinance Web site that lets people lend as little as $25 to small businesses from Vietnam to Kenya is drawing so much interest from lenders that it’s struggling to keep up.
Kiva works with dozens of microcredit groups who pick needy businesses - from a Honduran woman selling cosmetics to a Cambodian weaving business or a Ghanaian car repair shop, serving as an online platform for connecting the microfinancing people in the field with people across the world. Transparency to show how money flows throughout the entire cycle is one of the highlights of the website. Periodically, lenders hear back from the business they sponsor either view posts on the website or via email.
The site has photographs and business plans from people seeking amounts that range from $75 to over $1,000. In a system that mirrors online stores, each microcredit firm is rated according to whether loans have defaulted in the past, how long it has been operating and the total amount of loans.
Filed under: Digital culture, Website Alert, eGovernance
[…] offering an armchair approach towards addressing global poverty. While sites like Kiva allow you to loan specifically to businesses, MicroPlace offers more of a capitals market […]