Partner Description:

Palmis Mikwofinans Sosyal, S.A. provides financial and social services to low-income entrepreneurs in Haiti’s townships. Haiti is the poorest country in the Americas and is also a challenging environment to operate in because of the high rate of natural disasters, including the devastating 2010 earthquake.

A unique lending approach:

Palmis Mikwofinans Sosyal, S.A. offers a range of loans tailored to the needs of different borrowers.  This allows borrowers to graduate to larger loan sizes while continuously benefiting from a comprehensive package of non-financial, social services. Traditionally, borrowers start with the “Ti Kredit,” or small loan, before enrolling into a SOLVA group loan, and subsequently graduating to individual and small enterprise loans.

A Note on Palmis Mikwofinans Sosyal​’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 Haiti, 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 a region known to be at risk of natural disaster, which increases the cost of doing business.
• 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.