Monday, April 16, 2007

Micro-financing in India

Have you read about 'Muhammad Yunus' and his idea of micro-financing? Though micro-financing has been there for ages... It is fascinating to know that he has 6.6 million borrowers of whom 97% are women, that's a huge number for someone who is into micro-financing. I started reading more about micro-financing and came across a article by an advertising agency which talks about 'Seventy Things to Watch in 2007' and interestingly of one them is 'Web-based Micro Financing'.. I googled around and found this website 'kiva.org' it is quite a successful business today. 'Web-based Micro Financing' is a wonderful idea.. I am curious to know how much would these micro-lenders earn, like what would be the percentage of profit...? and would you invest in such ventures to get good returns...? How much do you think the website owners(kiva.org) are making money..?

I think you just need 3 things to build a company like Kiva.. 1, Technical skill to build a website. 2, Build contacts with local micro-financiers 3, Most importantly you need to have financial (banking/micro-financing) background to understand and run this business or may be degree in finance. I can build such a website with in a week and build contacts with micro-financiers - So, if anyone wants to start something similar to kiva then I would be interested to become a partner but your business plan should interest me.. I see a great opportunity in micro-financing esp India .

1 comment:

Ricky said...

check out UnitedProsperity.org, it's a new start up with a focus on India. Your blog caught my eye because I just started interning there.