Helping the Tanzanite Group via Kiva

My latest Kiva loan has just been given, to the Tanzanite Group of Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania -- to be repaid in about 6 months or so. Specifically, my $25 will go to Patricia Mjuni, who runs a pharmacy business, though the repayment is being guaranteed by the Tanzanite Group. Group loans, as per Kiva:

In a group loan, each member of the group receives an individual loan but is part of a group of individuals bound by a group guarantee. Under this arrangement, each member of the group supports one another and is responsible for paying back the loans of their fellow group members if someone is delinquent or defaults.

Kiva does not directly manage the disbursement of funds, but rather, leverages field partners. In this case, my loan will be administered by Tujijenge Tanzania Ltd., a micro-finance company that has been in operation for 4 years now, in Tanzania. They have given out over US$1.2M in loans, and have a return on assets of 2.03% -- coming from interests and fees charged to customers. As usual, I give all my loans to women entrepreneurs -- for one, women remain depressing disadvantaged in our world, especially the developing world; and secondly, it is my firm belief that as the core of the family, investment in women represent the best chance of sustaining success and breaking the poverty cycle. Tujijenge Tanzania Ltd. loan mix is currently at 68.58% in favour of women.


Tanzania is currently ranked near the bottom of the list on the UN Human Development Index -- country 151 of 180 countries in the world. It is one of the oldest known continuously inhabited places on Earth, yet for the past couple of hundred years it has enslaved by just about everybody that has passed through. (At one point, nearly 90% of the population of Zanzibar City was enslaved.) It has been recovering from colonization since the 1960s, when the Brits decided that they had taken all they could from the place, and should leave. More on Tanzania can be found on the CIA's World Factbook.