Status update - December 22, 2021

Since the beginning of the pandemic, REAL Impact has faced significant challenges in how it operates its business in Papua New Guinea and unfortunately the organisation has made the difficult decision to cease trading. REAL Impact has exhausted all efforts at recovering repayments on its Kiva loans and regrettably this has resulted in losses for our lenders. Through this partnership, Kiva's lenders helped REAL Impact test out an ambitious lending methodology providing working capital loans to communities and business sectors that suffer from a high degree of financial exclusion. Although the outcome wasn't what either party had hoped for, small artisanal businesses in remote parts of Papua New Guinea did at least get the opportunity to access financing for the first time and learn from this experience. REAL Impact leave a legacy of valuable experimentation and we hope others can pick up the baton from here to improve financial inclusion for creative artisans worldwide.

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

Partner description:

REAL Impact is a for-profit social enterprise that is based in Australia and lends to small and growing businesses in Pacific Island nations. REAL Impact seeks to develop a viable and export-ready creative industry across the Pacific region by connecting global fashion and interior design retailers with local artisan producers. The social enterprise provides capacity building for artisans and generates more consistent demand via its e-commerce B2B marketplace.   

A unique lending approach:

Kiva financing will go towards REAL Impact’s efforts to provide working capital loans to artisans making products such as furniture, lighting and artworks.

The loan amounts with range from $5,000 to $20,000.