Nearly 10,000 micro loans amounting over $15 million have been funded through a partnership between crowdfunding firm Kiva and the South Pacific Business Development (SPBD) Fiji.
This was revealed by Kiva Microfunds’ Asia Pacific investment manager Mark McDonagh when he officially opened SPBD Fiji’s Labasa office yesterday.
“Seven years into Kiva’s partnership with SPBD Fiji, almost 10,000 loans have been crowdfunded for a total of $US7.1m ($F15.6m).
“As SPBD Fiji has grown over these years, Kiva has increased its funding in tandem and it is my hope that our two organisations will continue to grow and innovate together long into the future.”
Mr McDonagh said Kiva has raised $93 million to fund over 50,000 SPBD loans for clients in SPBD’s five-country network across the Pacific.
“Kiva’s partnership with the SPBD group stretches back over 18 years when we started lending to SPBD Samoa in 2006,” Mr McDonagh said.
“As many of you know, this was SPBD’s first and only microfinance operation at the time but once the founding management team refined the lending methodology and developed a sustainable model, the group really started to scale.
“In 2009, SPBD expanded to Tonga and a year later, they established a presence in Fiji, importing and replicating the successful business model from Samoa.
“The Solomons Islands and Vanuatu soon followed and today, at least in my opinion, SPBD is the only sustainable and mission-driven microfinance institution in the Pacific region, a truly unique achievement.”
Mr McDonagh said as one of the world’s first crowdfunding websites, Kiva’s mission is to expand financial access to help underserved communities thrive.
“We do this by crowdfunding loans and unlocking capital for the under-served, improving the quality and cost of financial services, and addressing the underlying barriers to financial access around the world.”
While opening the new office for SPBD office in Labasa, he said through their work, students could pay for tuition and women could start businesses.
“Also farmers were able to invest in equipment and families can afford needed emergency care.”
He said since Kiva’s founding in 2005, more than $4billion in loans have been funded through its website — www.kiva.org — reaching 5.1m borrowers in close to 100 countries around the world.
Reprinted from https://www.fijitimes.com.fj/crowdfunding-15m-micro-loans-funded-through-partnership/
