Intruders

Kiva.org is a non-profit Internet organization that allows people to loan money to entrepreneurs in developing countries. In other words, Premal Shah‘s Kiva is a marketplace for microfinance loans.

Microfinance works like any modern bank by providing consumers with access to credit. It arose in the 1970s, through the efforts of Mohammad Yunus, a microfinance pioneer and founder of the Grameen Bank of Bangladesh. Mr. Yunus was recently awarded a Nobel Peace Prize in recognition of his work and its effect on Bangladesh’s low-income nationals. There are now literally thousands of micro-finance institutions or MFIs, as they are known around the world providing poor citizens with much-needed access to financial services.

A typical MFI lends a small amount of money (e.g. $100) to an individual or to a group of people. In general, the money is used to operate small businesses such as running a small farm, operating a shop or producing items to be sold in the local community. The loans are then repaid on a regular basis and another loan can be taken out once the original one has been paid off.

To date, Kiva.org has acquired approximately 100,000 users who have lent over 10 million dollars to 15,000 small businesses in 40 countries.

Kiva is definitely one of our favorite startups and Intruders.tv encourages you to sign up today

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