Micro-Loans Offer Big Help To Entrepreneurs

Hezron Maina is a pastor in Africa. He’s also a businessman — one who had a problem. His tiny grain store needed inventory, and his crops were in trouble. What he really needed was a business loan, and for that he needed a miracle.

A hardworking bicycle taxi driver had a similar dilemma, as did a widow with a family to feed. But these people have more than just problems in common. They also share a solution to those problems, thanks to people like Andy Ticcione of Minneapolis, who were willing to put their faith and money in the hands of these hardworking but needy strangers.

Ticcione, a graduate student in Minneapolis, saw Hezron’s photo on Kiva.org, the Web site of an organization that pair people who are willing to risk loaning small amounts of money — as little as $25 — with would-be entrepreneurs trying to make a living in 37 of the poorest countries on Earth.

Andy’s response at seeing Hezron’s photo — a simple image of a man on his farm — was to help.
“If I can give him a hundred dollars that was a gift to me for my birthday, I’m gonna help him out,” Andy said of his reaction.

The site was founded by Jessica and Matt Flannery. They were newlyweds — he a software engineer, she an MBA student at Stanford — who were convinced they could use the Internet to put people in need together with people willing to help.

Courtesy of Kiva.org Kiva.org founders Jessica and Matt Flannery.

“When you see somebody who has succeeded even a little bit and you just know they’ll succeed more if they have another opportunity, you just — you want to be a part of that,” Jessica said.

“I think it's something very comforting, very human, and almost irresistible when you know that this person in this picture is going to benefit from my little action on the Internet today,” Matt said. “That's an — an irresistible offer."  

The Flannerys ignored critics who predicted no one would loan money to poor borrowers who had no collateral, like a war refugee and her children making rugs in Afghanistan, or a young Nairobi mother selling corn in a slum.

But people were willing to loan them money — just a few lenders at first, and then thousands.