Kiva City offers microloans to hardest hit American cities

Building from its success in funding entrepreneurs in the developing world, microloan company Kiva has turned its eye towards America, giving loans in cities like New Orleans and Detroit.

The Kiva City Programme, working in partnership with Visa, has been expanded to offer US business owners access to Kiva micro-loans. The aim is to focus Kiva's micro-lending efforts on cities that have been worst hit by the global economic downturn. A study commissioned by Kiva and Visa found that 20 of the 50 largest metropolitan areas in the US lost at least one percent of their small businesses between 2006 and 2008.

Detroit, which ranked fifth in the study's list of the hardest hit cities, will be the first Kiva City. Kiva will be working with Michigan Corps and ACCION USA to help Detroit's small-business owners get access to capital to finance their operations.

"Since launching in the US two years ago, we have worked with our partners to replicate our successful global model, empowering each and every American to help our economy by adding as little as US$25 to a small business owner's loan," said Kiva President Premal Shah. "But as our study shows, the need in the US is widespread and many regions simply don't have microfinance institutions operating at scale. Now, spurred by Visa's commitment to small business, we are able to expand our reach and, as a result, open new avenues of capital for small business owners across the country."

For more information visit http://www.kiva.org/