Nearly 10,000 microloans totaling over $15 million have been provided through a collaboration between crowdfunding platform Kiva and the South Pacific Business Development (SPBD) Fiji. This announcement was made by Mark McDonagh, Kiva Microfunds’ Asia Pacific investment manager, during the official opening of SPBD Fiji’s Labasa office.
McDonagh shared that in the seven years of Kiva’s partnership with SPBD Fiji, approximately 10,000 loans have been crowdfunded, accumulating to about $7.1 million USD (or $15.6 million FJD). He expressed hopes for continued growth and innovation between the two organizations.
Furthermore, McDonagh noted that Kiva has raised $93 million to support over 50,000 SPBD loans benefiting clients across SPBD’s five-country Pacific network. Kiva’s collaboration with the SPBD group began 18 years ago, with initial lending to SPBD Samoa in 2006, which served as SPBD’s first microfinance operation. After refining its lending methodology, SPBD expanded its reach to Tonga in 2009 and established a presence in Fiji the following year.
Today, according to McDonagh, SPBD stands as a distinctive mission-driven microfinance institution in the Pacific region. He highlighted Kiva’s goal of expanding financial access to empower underserved communities by crowdfunding loans, enhancing the quality and affordability of financial services, and tackling barriers to financial access globally.
In his remarks during the office opening, McDonagh emphasized the positive impact of their work, stating it enables students to afford tuition, women to launch businesses, farmers to acquire necessary equipment, and families to pay for emergency healthcare. Since its inception in 2005, Kiva has funded more than $4 billion in loans through its platform, benefiting 5.1 million borrowers in nearly 100 countries worldwide.