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 — January 12, 2017

Kiva has decided to default Finance South Sudan's remaining loans due to ongoing conflict and insecurity in South Sudan, which has impacted their ability to operate and collect repayments. Many of Finance South Sudan's clients have fled their homes and some are in refugee camps. The conflict began in 2013 and Kiva agreed to a 1 year grace period to allow Finance South Sudan to recover and rebuild, but renewed conflict in 2016 has destabilized the country once again and Finance South Sudan is unable to repay as planned. Given the fact that the political and economic situation in South Sudan continues to worsen, all 118 loans worth $26,279 have been defaulted as of January 2017, and the partnership is now closed. 

Status update — July 22, 2016

The political and economic situation has worsened once again in South Sudan, as fighting erupted in the capital city of Juba. Due to related operational challenges, Finance South Sudan requested that Kiva defer their July and October payments until December 2016. Kiva has agreed and will update lenders at the end of the year.

Status update — April 22, 2016

Following the agreed upon 1 year grace period, Finance South Sudan has begun repaying Kiva according to the restructured repayment plan. They will make quarterly payments until the full balance is repaid in April 2017. At that point, Finance South Sudan may resume fundraising for new loans.

Status Update — January 8, 2015

In late 2013 and early 2014, South Sudan experienced political instability that affected the operations of Kiva partner Finance South Sudan. The country is slowly recovering and Finance South Sudan has resumed operations and is working through a recovery and rebuilding period. A large social investor has made a significant financial commitment to the organization and is working with Finance South Sudan to develop an institutional recovery plan and focusing on maintaining sufficient liquidity to support the business during the rebuilding period.

Kiva has agreed to allow a one year grace period for Finance South Sudan during the duration of the institutional recovery plan, and agreed to a restructured repayment plan in which the remaining balance of $39,371 is repaid following the grace period. Finance South Sudan will not be funding loans on the Kiva platform until this balance has been fully repaid.


Partner Description:

Finance Sudan Limited is a microfinance institution operating in South Sudan. Established in 2006 by the American Refugee Committee, it was incorporated in 2009 after Micro Africa Ltd. -- another Kenyan MFI -- decided to partner with ARC to provide microfinance services to the people of South Sudan. To keep the company growing sustainably, ARC sold off its stake in 2011, paving the way for the creation of Finance Sudan Limited as an independent entity.

The mission of Finance Sudan Limited is to contribute to the economic rebuilding and stabilization of South Sudan by providing quality financial services to low-income borrowers through sustainable microfinance with a national scope. The targeted group is comprised of small-scale traders, produce dealers and salaried workers.

Finance Sudan Limited currently has 7 branches (Corporate, Munuki, Wau, Malakal, Yambio, Yei and Nimule), which are spread throughout 5 states (Central Equatorial, Eastern Equatorial, Western Equatorial, Western Bahr el Ghazel and Upper Nile) out of the country’s 10 states.

The institution primarily offers three loan products:
1. Group loans (FSSL Group Loan & Nuswan/Women Development Loans) that are administered through the group guarantee system.
2. SME loans offered to small and medium-scale businesses with formal collateral.
3. Salary loans offered to employees at reputable organizations operating in South Sudan. 

Finance Sudan Limited intends to become a formal deposit-taking institution and begin offering both savings and money transfer services.

A note about Finance South Sudan Limited'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 South Sudan, which is classified as a fragile situation by the U.N. This can greatly increase the cost of safely delivering financial services to borrowers. 

• 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’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 in areas with very poor infrastructure, such as limited roads. This increases the costs of finding clients and maintaining branch offices.

• They pay high interest rates on the loans they take from banks and other funders, given the market in which they operate. This means they need more support from innovative sources like Kiva to reduce costs and pass savings on to borrowers.

• 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.

• They work extensively in rural areas, which requires their employees to engage in costly travel to find and serve their clients.