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 — December 20, 2018

Kiva and African Leadership Academy (ALA) have agreed to end their partnership after 6 years and $17,500 in loans raised. This is because ALA no longer needs Kiva funding for laptop loans and has not developed a new loan product. This partner has repaid its outstanding balance to Kiva in full, and these funds have been distributed to lenders. We thank ALA for their partnership and wish them success in their future endeavors.

Status update - March 22, 2016

Kiva has moved this Lending Partner to inactive status. This means African Leadership Academy is no longer fundraising loans on Kiva. This partner is currently inactive because they no longer need Kiva funding for laptop loans and have not developed a new loan product. If and when this partner requests to fundraise again on Kiva, Kiva will first conduct any additional monitoring and due diligence tasks we believe necessary.

Partner Description: 

African Leadership Academy (ALA) is an institution established to transform Africa by identifying, developing and connecting the continent’s next generation of leaders.

To address what it sees as Africa’s most critical need -- the need for ethical and effective leadership -- ALA aims to develop thousands of transformative and ethical leaders for Africa over the next 50 years. To achieve this goal, the institution utilizes a vast network of contacts across Africa to identify the most promising 15 to 19 year-old leaders on the continent. These future leaders are then brought together for a two-year pre-university program at a world-class boarding school in South Africa.

ALA’s model for change can be distilled into three components: 

• Identifying the most outstanding young leaders across Africa.
• Developing these young leaders through an innovative and formative program that focuses on hands-on experience.
• Fostering powerful, lifelong networks for these leaders, ultimately positioning them to make a significant impact on the continent. Today, the ALA network includes almost 450 young leaders from 44 African countries.

ALA admits young Africans with a passion for public service, a commitment to Africa, and demonstrated potential to lead and impact the world. The foundation of ALA’s model is its intensive, two-year residential program that focuses on hands-on leadership experience, training in social entrepreneurship and a deeply analytical exploration of the issues facing Africa today.

ALA believes that by identifying young leaders with immense potential, enabling them to practice leadership skills, and connecting them with transformative opportunities, it can develop and empower the next Nelson Mandela, the next Wangari Maathai, and Africa’s Jonas Salk and Steve Jobs. ALA will continue to cultivate these leaders throughout their lives, through university and beyond by providing mentorship and connecting them with career opportunities and high-impact networks of people and sources of capital.

The need:

ALA employs a rigorous, multi-faceted admissions process that brings in not only top scholars, but students who exhibit leadership potential. However, the overwhelming majority of Africa’s young leaders come from disadvantaged backgrounds -- almost all ALA students require some financial assistance and nearly 85% require full scholarships.

One of ALA’s biggest challenges is finding funding to provide lower-income students with the resources they need to succeed once they’re enrolled. One such critical need is funding for student laptops. 

ALA currently depends on donors to fund laptop purchases for its campus library because the majority of students cannot afford to purchase one upfront. This system is not ideal because:

• There are not enough library laptops to meet the computing needs of ALA’s 200 students.
• Laptops have an already short life-span that is further reduced by the added wear and tear of many users.
• Students leave ALA without having their own laptops for further use.

For these reasons and more, ALA would like to equip each incoming student with his or her own laptop to help with their schoolwork and teach them responsibility.

To help meet this need, Kiva provides laptop loans of approximately $500 per ALA student at the start of each academic year. Students who take out these loans pay them back over the course of their two years at ALA with funds earned through a combination of campus work assignments, entrepreneurial activities and parental or guardian support where possible.

You can hear from ALA students firsthand on the school’s “In Their Own Words” blog.