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 — February 17, 2021

ARD's final loans with Kiva have ended or defaulted, and this partnership is now closed. For the last 3 years, Kiva has been working with ARD to try to recover the remaining outstanding amounts due to Kiva lenders. Kiva and ARD agreed upon a payment plan in August, 2018, but Kiva only received $7,000 of a total of $57,013.56 of payment commitments made in this plan. Kiva’s present assessment is that this Lending Partner is unlikely to make further payments, and thus the remaining $50,013.56 in outstanding amounts due to Kiva lenders has been defaulted. If Kiva is able to recover any additional funds from ARD, they will be applied to lenders' accounts on a pro-rata basis.

Status update — February 22, 2019

As of January, 2019, has $57,021.14 outstanding in Kiva funds, of which $28,187.15 is overdue to Kiva lenders. Kiva and ARD have agreed on a repayment plan with small monthly installments, but ARD has thus far not honored this agreement with the exception of one $5,000 payment sent in 2018. Kiva is still working to collect repayments from ARD and will continue to post updates to this page as our collections efforts progress.

Status update - March 10, 2015

Association for Rural Development operates in Sierra Leone, one of the countries in West Africa that was most affected by the Ebola outbreak. As a result, the association had to close some of their branches last year. They have now re-opened all of them and are slowly resuming operations, however they have witnessed high delinquency rates in affected areas. Association for Rural Development is still posting new loans on Kiva, and has been reporting repayments regularly so did not require a grace period from Kiva.

Status update - October 23, 2014

Association for Rural Development (ARD) operates in Sierra Leone, 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. ARD is continuing to operate throughout the outbreak, but accordingly these loans will have a higher risk associated with them. Learn more about the epidemic here. 

Partner description:

Association for Rural Development (ARD) is one of the leading Micro Finance Institutions in Sierra Leone. ARD, a registered NGO, was established in 1986 and started operations in 1989.

The Association works on a range of programmes related to meeting the needs of entrepreneurs through the creation, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of small scale projects. Over the years ARD has been providing professional and committed services to helping the poor, disadvantaged and marginalized groups taking responsibility for their own development. The organization has metamorphosed in the last decade to a Financial Service Provider, specialising in microfinance and providing loans for small scale businesses. It mainly gives loans to economically active women, who do not usually have access to formal banking systems. ARD primarily engages in group lending whereby (5- 10) persons each co-guarantee the other. Loan are between $100 and $1,600. To date, the organization has more than 15,000 active clients - over 70% of whom are women and has disbursed more than $1.9 million in loans.

Through its numerous loan products and participatory methodologies, ARD has been able to provide direct financial services mainly through the provision of credits/loans. This has increased women’s access to credit and cash and has enabled them to improve upon their productive capabilities in their various enterprises. To guarantee the sustainability of these efforts, ARD improves the management skills of their clients through business advisory services and technical support. Literacy, HIV/AID sensitization and condom social marketing are allied activities patronized by the loan recipients.

ARD has offices in Freetown, Bo, Makeni and Kenema.