4 ms·

Good micro lending options do exist, Kiva has a great track record[1]. My perspective, the exploitive micro lending options exist due to lack of financial educ

Good micro lending options do exist, Kiva has a great track record[1]. My perspective, the exploitive micro lending options exist due to lack of financial education in our K-12 primary schools globally. Teaching the average student the fundamentals of accounting and finance would be much more practical than trigonometry or pre-calculus. For base IRR, NPV, DPP, etc. algebra 1 is plenty of a mathematics foundation to complete. [1] https://www.kiva.org/about/impact https://www.kiva.org/about/impact

skybrian 6y ago
The marketing says they are good, but the point of the article is that the marketing is often untrustworthy. What are Kiva's local partners hiding from them and does Kiva watch over them closely enough to find out when something is going wrong? It seems like we aren't in a position to know?
- FabHK 6y ago
  Exactly. Kiva doesn't give out the loans itself, but uses partner organisations. And IIRC they have cut ties with several of these due to various scandals, though a quick search hasn't yielded any reputable source. Maybe that means that the due diligence process (ultimately) works...
- gravitas 6y ago
  Kiva indicates I have been using them for 8 years (2012); 75 countries/territories, 15 sectors, 163 activities and 258 field partners (the company on the other side processing the loan in country is the field partner to which you're referring). My lend focus is primarily agriculture, infrastructure education and other back end type microloans as opposed to finished goods and services typically for front end selling (a long time ago there was another website just for education, they merged with Kiva many years ago). Stats as of today: Delinquency rate 29.40%, Defaulted rate 7.67%, Currency loss rate 0.04% - the webUI indicates my Delinquency rate is higher than average (20.70%), same with Default rate (1.76%) but Currency loss much lower than average (0.33%). Results from folks who lend in the sectors I do not may have wildly different results...
  - FabHK 6y ago
    My stats: Delinquency rate 101.44% (dunno how that's computed...), default rate 2.41% (lucky - I've diversified a lot), and 86 of 75 countries (they've dropped several countries).
    - gravitas 6y ago
      What we need is the ability to see this data by country, I think patterns might develop. It doesn't appear to be possible in the current webUI that I can find - probably an uncommon query for them.
sukilot 6y ago
Microlending isn't a complex ARM loan. It's $X out, $Y due back later. NPV doesn't matter to someone who wants $100 to fix their roof or buy a sheep.

skybrian 6y ago

The marketing says they are good, but the point of the article is that the marketing is often untrustworthy. What are Kiva's local partners hiding from them and does Kiva watch over them closely enough to find out when something is going wrong? It seems like we aren't in a position to know?

FabHK 6y ago
Exactly. Kiva doesn't give out the loans itself, but uses partner organisations. And IIRC they have cut ties with several of these due to various scandals, though a quick search hasn't yielded any reputable source. Maybe that means that the due diligence process (ultimately) works...
gravitas 6y ago
Kiva indicates I have been using them for 8 years (2012); 75 countries/territories, 15 sectors, 163 activities and 258 field partners (the company on the other side processing the loan in country is the field partner to which you're referring). My lend focus is primarily agriculture, infrastructure education and other back end type microloans as opposed to finished goods and services typically for front end selling (a long time ago there was another website just for education, they merged with Kiva many years ago). Stats as of today: Delinquency rate 29.40%, Defaulted rate 7.67%, Currency loss rate 0.04% - the webUI indicates my Delinquency rate is higher than average (20.70%), same with Default rate (1.76%) but Currency loss much lower than average (0.33%). Results from folks who lend in the sectors I do not may have wildly different results...
- FabHK 6y ago
  My stats: Delinquency rate 101.44% (dunno how that's computed...), default rate 2.41% (lucky - I've diversified a lot), and 86 of 75 countries (they've dropped several countries).
  - gravitas 6y ago
    What we need is the ability to see this data by country, I think patterns might develop. It doesn't appear to be possible in the current webUI that I can find - probably an uncommon query for them.

sukilot 6y ago

Microlending isn't a complex ARM loan. It's $X out, $Y due back later. NPV doesn't matter to someone who wants $100 to fix their roof or buy a sheep.