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 — December 13, 2019

Siza Capital's final loans with Kiva have been defaulted, and this partnership is now closed. For the last 2.5 years, Kiva first tried working with Siza and then an external debt collection agency to recover the outstanding amounts due to Kiva lenders. Kiva and Siza agreed upon a payment plan in June 2017, but Kiva only received $2,213.87 of the payment commitments made in this plan. Kiva’s present assessment is that this Lending Partner is no longer operating and will not make further payments, and thus the remaining $143,331.16 in outstanding amounts due to Kiva lenders has been defaulted. Kiva will continue to work with the external debt collection agency, and if we are able to recover any additional funds from Siza, they will be applied to lenders' accounts on a pro-rata basis.

Status update — April 20, 2018

Siza has been delinquent in repaying funds owed to Kiva since February 2017, and has an outstanding balance of $143,331.16. Siza stopped communicating with Kiva in November 2017, so we have explored alternative options to collect funds owed to Kiva lenders. Kiva has contracted the services of an external debt collection agency to help retrieve lenders’ outstanding balance with Siza. We will provide more details on this page as we know more about the likelihood of recovery of funds.

Status update — August 16, 2017

Kiva has decided to pause Siza's access to fundraising loans on the Kiva platform as Siza faces serious operational and financial issues that threaten the organization's sustainability. Siza has failed to meet its payment obligations to Kiva lenders since February 2017, and currently has about $43,431 in outstanding debt that is now considered delinquent. Kiva has been working with Siza to try to recover these funds since March and has negotiated a repayment plan, however this partner did not submit their first agreed upon payment of $8,500 due in July. Kiva will continue to pursue recovery of all outstanding funds and will pass those funds on to lenders if and as they're received. We will provide additional information to lenders as it becomes available.

Partner description:

Siza was formed in 2013 to improve entrepreneurship opportunities for unemployed youth and women. Siza’s clients are from historically disadvantaged communities in South Africa who may never have engaged in any kind of business activity. By working with these marginalized groups to develop business skills and start small enterprises, Siza hopes to reduce poverty in these areas.

A unique lending approach:

​Siza focuses on capacity building and skills development first, working with clients to create smart business plans. Once a client has developed an idea that he or she would like to launch, Siza offers a 0% interest in-kind loan to enable the entrepreneur to purchase the equipment needed to get the business started. After the entrepreneur has launched their business, Siza offers conventional cash microfinance loans to support business growth.