Kiva conducts regular, ongoing monitoring of all Lending Partners, but only posts status updates here in response to relevant, major changes at the partner.

Status Update - June 14, 2018

Kiva recently re-assessed the level of risk associated with loans from this Lending Partner. During this process, our analysts gathered updated operational and financial information about the institution, spoke with key members of the staff and analyzed the Lending Partner’s loan products. As a result, BRAC Liberia risk rating is now listed as 2.5 stars instead of 1.5 stars. The primary reasons for this change is growth and improvement in financial and portfolio performance recorded from 2016 following the devastating Ebola crisis in 2014/2015 that resulted in shutting down their operations for 9 months. 

Status update - January 10, 2017

Following resumption of BRAC Liberia’s Kiva program in October 2016, Kiva continues to monitor progress of their fundraising activity as well as repayment of the amount owed to Kiva lenders. Since resuming fundraising, BRAC Liberia has cumulatively raised over $129,000, most of which has been used to repay overdue balances due to lenders, bringing down the outstanding overdue amount to $105,382 as of the end of December 2016. This is part of a phased repayment plan that Kiva agreed with BRAC Liberia upon resumption of their fundraising on the Kiva platform. Following this progress and our assessment of liquidity needs at BRAC Liberia, we have agreed to allow BRAC Liberia to repay the remaining overdue amount gradually through June 2017. Kiva will continue to monitor BRAC Liberia’s fundraising progress to ensure that BRAC Liberia continues to make progress on their repayment plan each month. We thank lenders for their patience and hope they’ll continue to support BRAC Liberia borrowers in the future.

Status update - October 05, 2016

As of October 5, BRAC Liberia's partnership has been unpaused and this organization is now able to resume fundraising on the Kiva platform.

Status update - July 7, 2016 

Kiva and BRAC Liberia have come to an agreement regarding a repayment plan for the amount owed to Kiva lenders, taking into considering BRAC Liberia’s liquidity situation following the Ebola crisis of 2014. In June, BRAC Liberia successfully made the first installment in accordance with this plan in the amount of $100k, and these funds have been settled out to lenders. 

BRAC Liberia will begin fundraising for new loans on Kiva in July 2016, given their compliance with the agreed upon repayment plan. The decision also follows a positive assessment from an onsite monitoring visit by Kiva staff, who visited the institution in May 2016. From the visit, Kiva ascertained that BRAC Liberia’s lending program is now fully back on track and requires additional funding to meet rising demand for capital, in particular from their clients whose businesses were severely affected by the economic crisis arising from Ebola epidemic. 

With resumption of Kiva funding, Kiva expects that the cumulative amount collected by BRAC Liberia from Kiva borrowers during the inactive period will be repaid in full over the course of 2016, through Kiva’s net billing system. Any balance due, but not raised in the fundraising for new loans, will be repaid by BRAC Liberia in December of 2016. 

We thank lenders for their patience and support of BRAC Liberia and other West African partners affected by this crisis, and hope they’ll continue to support BRAC Liberia borrowers in the future. 

Status update - February 1, 2016  

As of January 2016, Kiva has yet to conclude the reconciliation exercise to determine the status of outstanding Kiva Loans at BRAC Liberia. This delay has been caused by BRAC Liberia’s difficulties in providing required information from their MIS to complete this exercise as anticipated. We however continue to work with the partner to provide the missing information and as soon as we receive this information we’ll provide more updates.

Status update - August 6, 2015

The repayment grace period for Lending Partners affected by the Ebola outbreak in West Africa concluded at the end of May 2015. Kiva has started the process of establishing the status of all outstanding Kiva loans made through these partners. The goal is to identify the actual amounts repaid by Kiva borrowers to the partner during the grace period, identify loans that have since become delinquent and require rescheduling of original repayment terms, as well as those that will be defaulted or written off. Once Kiva has more complete information on the status of the Lending Partner's portfolio we'll provide that information here.

Status update - March 10, 2015 

Kiva is extending the existing grace period for Lending Partners impacted by the Ebola outbreak until the end of May 2015. This will allow the partners time to carry out comprehensive audits of their operations, and to share information with Kiva on outstanding loans and their plans going forward. 

BRAC Liberia operates in one of the countries in West Africa that was most affected by the Ebola outbreak. As a result, BRAC Liberia has been closed since September of last year, but the organization plans to resume microfinance activities in March 2015. As BRAC starts recovering loan payments they will update Kiva on the status of all outstanding loans. The organization hopes to resume posting new loans to Kiva in April.

Status update - October 23, 2014

BRAC Liberia operates in Liberia, one of the countries in West Africa currently experiencing an Ebola outbreak. This epidemic is the largest in history, claiming thousands of lives and having a deep impact on the national economy. BRAC Liberia has temporarily stopped funding on Kiva as they respond to this crisis. Learn more about the epidemic here.

Kiva has allowed BRAC Liberia a 4-month grace period for repayments until the end of 2014, at which time we will reevaluate the situation. The Kiva team is in regular communication with BRAC Liberia and will provide an update when they resume funding on Kiva.

Partner description: 

BRAC is a development organization dedicated to alleviating poverty by empowering the poor to bring about change in their own lives. We started out in Bangladesh in 1972 and over the course of our evolution, we have established ourselves as a pioneer in recognizing and tackling the many different realities of poverty.

BRAC achieves large scale, rapid change by working with individuals, families, communities and institutions to overcome poverty. Our approach is comprehensive — with financial services, capacity building and livelihood development as well as health, education and social justice — enabling them to realize their potential.

BRAC launched operations in Liberia in 2008, incorporated BRAC Microfinance company in January 2009 and disbursed the first loans by June of the same year.

Microfinance Program — is designed to provide reliable access to cost effective financial services to poor and marginalized women.

Small Enterprise Program (SEP) — launched in 2010, this program is offered to individuals — male and female — and has the purpose of enabling owners to create new employment opportunities and provide new services. These entrepreneurs that would otherwise have limited access to the formal financial system — too large for microloans but with insufficient collateral for commercial banks.

Essential Healthcare Program (EHC) — launched in November of 2008 its goal is to improve health conditions and increase access to health services by providing basic health services. One member of each BRAC borrowing group is designated and trained as a Community Health Promoter who serves the needs of the community with particular attention to poor women and children.

Agriculture, Livestock & Poultry — with experience from Bangladesh, BRAC started the program in October 2008 with the objective of increasing agriculture productivity and reduce vulnerability of poor and marginalized farmers through technical support and high quality seed.

A Note on BRAC Liberia’s Portfolio Yield:

We care deeply about the cost that Kiva borrowers pay for their loans, which is why fair pricing is a core part of our initial due diligence process for Lending Partners. With Kiva's 0% capital, many of our Lending Partners are also able to add additional value to their loans by reducing interest rates, offering non-financial services or creating new loan products.

For partners with reported portfolio yields or average APRs higher than 50%, Kiva takes steps to check that the high rates are justified by the impact of the loans. Kiva also verifies that the partner is not generating unreasonable profits or paying inflated salaries, and that the partner’s elevated operating costs are justified by its operating environment and/or the design of its loan products.

We seek to support loans that don’t impose an unjustifiable cost burden on hard-working borrowers. We nevertheless recognize that in order to reach vulnerable and excluded people with high-impact products and services, some of our partners incur high costs that necessitate charging higher-than-average costs to borrowers in order to allow for sustainability and scale.

Factors that drive up the costs that this partner organization charges its borrowers include:

• They operate in a market with high inflation, which means that the rates you see on Kiva are overstated, since loans are given in local currency, which lost value much more quickly than the U.S. dollar.
• They operate in Liberia, which is classified as a fragile situation by the World Bank. This can greatly increase the cost of safely delivering financial services to borrowers. 
• They provide more than just cash to many of their borrowers, including costly wraparound services such as healthcare, financial or business training, agricultural extension services, insurance or access to education.
• They work in areas with very poor infrastructure, such as limited roads. This increases the costs of finding clients and maintaining branch offices.
• They’re based in an area with a high cost of living and doing business. This is often due to the high demand and low supply of adequate housing and goods.
• This partner is working in a country where doing business is difficult and costly due to regulatory, procedural and governance issues.
• They work extensively in rural areas, which requires their employees to engage in costly travel to find and serve their clients.
• They operate in an area with a limited or poorly functioning banking system. This makes it difficult to access funding locally, and makes it more challenging to send and receive payments on loans from outside the country.