Kiva has CLOSED our partnership with Afrique Emergence & Investissements.

In February 2008, Afrique Emergence & Investissements (AE&I) requested and received a Kiva Fellow to work with them in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire. In the initial weeks of the fellowship, the Fellow quickly discovered that the loan amounts and terms published on the Kiva website were consistently incorrect. Specifically, many of the loans were for $1200 with loan terms of 12 – 18 months when the actual loan amounts were often less than $300 with 1 – 3 month loan terms.

Within 1 week of discovery of these issues, Kiva sent a Senior Microfinance Adviser and a Microfinance Partnerships Manager to Cote d’Ivoire in order to investigate further.

During a week of investigation, serious gaps were discovered in AE&I’s process of raising funds on Kiva as well as its general microfinance operations. Specifically, AE&I demonstrated severe operational weaknesses, inadequate management information systems, and internal controls gaps. Furthermore, in the course of its investigation, Kiva learned that AE&I’strue interest rate was well in excess of the reported interest rate of 18% per annum. This higher interest rate was judged by Kiva to be entirely unjustified given the local context in which AE&I works, and concerns remain about the social impact of AE&I loans. After completing this investigation, Kiva immediately paused all fundraising for loans managed by AE&I.

Since all of the loans posted to Kiva by AE&I had actually be repaid by the borrower to AE&I or would be repaid by May 2008, Kiva pursued a strategy to recover funds as soon as possible and in full. On February 14th, Kiva and AE&I negotiated a repayment plan requiring all outstanding funds to be repaid by May 2008 and final payment was received on July 4th, 2008.

Kiva takes transparency and accountability very seriously and continues to strengthen and improve its due diligence systems to ensure that Lending Partners are stable and serving a social mission to alleviate poverty.

Kiva is committed to partnering with high quality microfinance institutions serving the poor through financial services. We work with many Lending Partners who are making a real difference in the lives of the poor, and we will continue to strive to provide a service to Kiva Lenders that is transparent and accountable.


Original Partner Description provided by Afrique Emergence & Investissements:

Afrique Emergence &Investissements (AE&I) is a dynamic MFI that has been operating in Côte d’Ivoire since 2003. Started amidst political and social unrest, AE&I offers financial services to survivors of conflict and vulnerable populations that otherwise would have no access them.

AE&I is dedicated to achieving financial and social goals, and its full range of modern financial services includes micro credit, micro leasing, micro factoring, micro saving, and other products. These services are directed toward the poor and most vulnerable groups in Africa, especially women and single mothers.

In post conflict Cote d’Ivoire, reconstruction requires the mobilization of funds to provide the vital resources necessary for development wealth creation. AE&I is committed to rebuilding prosperity for each poor family affected by the 5 years of recent conflict, and its team is leading this challenge and contributing to poverty alleviation and wealth creation throughout the country.

Afrique Emergence &Investissements can be contacted via email at bfahan@gmail.com