Kiva.org announces first partner in Bolivia: IMPRO

Kiva.org is proud to announce its first partnership in Bolivia, with IMPRO (Incubadora de Microempresas Productivas):

IMPRO is a non-for-profit organization that has been offering micro credit to the working poor in the cities of La Paz and El Alto in Bolivia since 1995. Our goal is to fight poverty by giving access to credit to small microbusiness owners that otherwise would not be able to access credit from the regular banking system due to lack of guaranties or collateral.

We also have a social impact on our clients' lives since our program "housing and habitat improvement" is directed to improve basic services such as water, sewage and electricity installations. Our system has worked so well that more than 50 % of our total portfolio is in Housing and habitat improvement programs, and the rest is in commercial and productive programs. The loan default rate is very low since our loan officers do a good job in selecting applications through our credit application process and our collection officers are very effective at collecting on time.

We have received considerable interest from Kiva Lenders in lending to Bolivia, and we are pleased to be expanding in this region. We look forward to a long and successful partnership with IMPRO!