Status update — July 19, 2016

Since the last update, Abaarso has collected all payments that its borrowers were able to make, and those have been sent to Kiva and disbursed to contributing lenders. Due to financial difficulties, some borrowers were unable to able to pay back the full loan amounts and those loans have been defaulted on Kiva. Given that all loans have now been paid back or defaulted, and that no new loans have been originated in several years, Kiva and Abaarso will be officially closing their partnership. Kiva once again thanks Abaarso for its partnership and their work on providing improved education in Somaliland.

 

Status update — June 24, 2014
The Abaarso partnership is now moved to inactive status. Abaarso will not be posting any new loans to the Kiva website, but Kiva expects that Abaarso will continue to monitor its borrowers and facilitate repayments to lenders. Over the course of the 2-year partnership, Abaarso raised nearly $27,000 in loans and helped 40 borrowers attend school. We thank Abaarso for their collaboration and wish them all the best in their work.
 

Partner description:

The Abaarso School of Science and Technology is a nonprofit educational institute launched in 2008 to provide primary, secondary, tertiary and graduate-level students with high-quality education in the Somaliland region of Somalia. Located in the village of Abaarso, the school is built on donated land and has traditionally been funded by its founder and individual grants.

The heart of the operation is the secondary school, a four-year boarding school that admits the brightest students in the country regardless of their ability to pay. Offering comprehensive courses in the sciences and humanities, the Abaarso School emphasizes interactive, hands-on learning techniques designed to propel its graduates to top-ranked universities worldwide.

Despite the Abaarso School’s need-blind admission policy, the secondary school aims to be sustainable. The goal is to cross-subsidize tuition for poorer students with three revenue-generating initiatives: a primary-level tutoring program, an undergraduate finance degree program, and an MBA program. While this effort has been somewhat successful, the Abaarso School still struggles to provide scholarships to all the students who need them. 

That’s where Kiva comes in. Our partnership with the Abaarso School gives lenders the opportunity to provide partial tuition loans to brilliant high school students who could not afford to attend otherwise. By offering longer-term loans, with repayment periods up to five years, Kiva helps the Abaarso School become more sustainable and serve a greater number of bright, low-income students. 

Before partnering with Kiva, the Abaarso School subsidized full and partial tuitions for nearly 84% of its student body, and there were no loans available. This model was not operationally sustainable and too reliant on donor funding. Kiva has enabled the Abaarso School to establish its first ever loan program, and to give students and their families a choice of the best loans to fit their financial situations.

For extra security, an 8% fee is charged upfront on loans and added to the amount of principal listed on Kiva. The full amount is repaid to lenders in accordance with the repayment schedule provided for each student. This small fee goes into the secondary school’s Shared Responsibility Fund, used to assist struggling borrowers with monthly repayments. 

All loan contracts are executed by both student and their parent or guardians -- and when possible, the student’s clan elder.

 


Repayment Performance on Kiva

    This Lending Partner All Kiva Partners
  Start Date On Kiva Aug 9, 2013 Oct 12, 2005
Total Loans $27,000 $2,056,436,760
Amount of raised Inactive loans $0 $246,055
Number of raised Inactive loans 0 235
Amount of Paying Back Loans $0 $158,330,245
Number of Paying Back Loans 0 188,292
Amount of Ended Loans $27,000 $1,854,343,460
Number of Ended Loans 40 2,501,455
Delinquency Rate 0.00% 12.18%
Amount in Arrears $0 $11,905,982
Outstanding Portfolio $0 $97,730,170
Number of Loans Delinquent 0 63,551
Default Rate 71.03% 1.84%
Amount of Ended Loans Defaulted $19,178 $34,038,827
Number of Ended Loans Defaulted 40 91,258
Currency Exchange Loss Rate 0.00% 0.47%
Amount of Currency Exchange Loss $0 $12,742,203
Refund Rate 0.00% 0.55%
Amount of Refunded Loans $0 $11,261,520
Number of Refunded Loans 0 9,866

Loan Characteristics On Kiva

    This Lending Partner All Kiva Partners
  Loans to Women Borrowers 60.00% 78.49%
Average Loan Size $675 $393
Average Individual Loan Size $675 $585
Average Group Loan Size $0 $1,913
Average number of borrowers per group 0 8.3
Average GDP per capita (PPP) in local country $600 $5,592
Average Loan Size / GDP per capita (PPP) 112.50% 7.03%
Average Time to Fund a Loan 0.29 days 9.13 days
Average Dollars Raised Per Day Per Loan $2,364.48 $43.04
  Average Loan Term 60 months 11.5 months

Journaling Performance on Kiva

    This Lending Partner All Kiva Partners
  Total Journals 6 1,225,264
  Journaling Rate 15.00% 41.91%
  Average Number of Comments Per Journal 0.00 0.02
  Average Number of Recommendations Per Journal 0.00 0.55

Borrowing Cost Comparison (based on 2009 data)

    This Lending Partner Median for MFI's in Country All Kiva Partners
  Average Cost to Borrower 4% APR N/A 26.61% PY
  Profitability (return on assets) N/A N/A -1.32%
  Average Loan Size (% of per capita income) N/A N/A 0.00%

Country Fast Facts

Lending Partner Staff