A loan helped enable increased income for more than 4,625 artisans in Rwanda and Uganda.


All Across Africa's story

With a rapidly growing population, Africa faces the mounting challenge to create jobs for its more than 1.3 billion inhabitants. Artisan craft provides employment to more than 300 million people worldwide and is the second-largest source of employment in the developing world. However, craft workers tend to have little formal education and are rarely organized. As such they have been subject to a range of exploitative work conditions like poor safety, low wages, and lack of formalization of their craft skills.

All Across Africa is a social enterprise that designs and produces high-quality handmade products: woven baskets, home décor, tableware, storage, and handbags. With a mission to formalize artisan employment in Africa and create a transparent and fair supply chain that pays a living wage, the company has employed over 4,600 artisans in economically marginalized rural communities and increased the wages 570% on average. All Across Africa provides artisans a "market bundle" that includes training in finance, leadership, and cooperative governance, with the ultimate goal of creating self-governing cooperatives.

This Loan of $200,000 will enable All Across Africa to provide 4,625 artisans with additional income. This is the third loan to All Across Africa through Kiva's Social Enterprise program. View the previous loans here and here.


This loan is special because:

All Across Africa is one of the largest artisan employers in Africa.



Loan details


Lenders and lending teams




Loan details