Status update — September 2023

Kiva and Advans Ghana have agreed to end their partnership after 6 years and over $1.0m in loans raised. This Lending Partner has repaid all its outstanding balance to Kiva in full, and these funds have been distributed to lenders. We thank Advans Ghana for the years of collaboration and wish them success in their future endeavors.

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:

Advans Ghana is a microfinance institution based in Ghana. They provide an array of financial services but focus on loans to micro, small and medium-sized businesses who do not have access to traditional banks. In addition to their work in urban regions, Advans Ghana developed a rural and agricultural lending program to better serve communities outside of cities. Advans Ghana designs agricultural loans according to the harvest season to provide farmers with finances when they need it most. This gives the farmers financial security and a competitive advantage throughout the year. 

A unique lending approach: 

Advans Ghana is expanding to support rural and agricultural entrepreneurship with cash and in-kind loans to reduce capital costs. Their farm input loans for rice farmers initiative focuses on rice production and includes a collaboration with Wienco, a large-scale rice dealer. This partnership enables borrowers to receive financial inputs and sell their harvest at competitive prices. In addition to their credit program, they offer financial training and business management education to their borrowers. 

A Note on Advans Ghana’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 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 provide more than just cash to many of their borrowers, including costly wraparound services such as healthcare, financial or business training, agricultural extension services, insurance or access to education.
• 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.