NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Tuesday, May 7, 2013

Imagine this: You’re in a developing nation with little access to electricity. In fact, you don’t have access to a grid, or enough electricity to keep a refrigerator and a light on and water filtered in your home. Or, if you have a generator, you can barely afford to pay for the expensive diesel that keeps it running. Now imagine that you’re in the U.S. with enough electricity to serve all your needs at relatively low prices, meaning you’ve got a couple extra bucks left over at the end of the month that you don’t know what to do with. Well, maybe you could help that other ‘you’ out by supporting one of Kiva’s solar entrepreneurs in developing nations.

The nonprofit is increasing support of renewable energy microfinance programs where people can invest as little as $25 to support citizens in some of Kiva’s 67 countries. The microfinancing organization says it has supported 918,735 lenders since it started in 2005 and its loans have had a 99.01 percent repayment rate — something that’s hard to find many investments.

Now, through programs like Solar Sister in Uganda, it’s supporting clean energy projects. The pilot project is four months old and already has 11 entrepreneurs that have attracted $3,325 thus far.