Urwego Bank

Urwego Bank is a community focused bank located in Kigali. Since 2009 (one of Kiva’s earliest partnerships!) Urwego has worked with Kiva lenders to provide loans to over 95,000 borrowers with more than $28 million dollars lent through Kiva.org. Urwego has a strong social impact mission and tailors loan products to low-income and underserved clients, particularly clients who don’t have the collateral to get a loan and are typically excluded from the regular financial system. Urwego, with the support of Kiva lenders, has served over 69% women with nearly $19 million dollars…

Urwego Bank is a community focused bank located in Kigali. Since 2009 (one of Kiva’s earliest partnerships!) Urwego has worked with Kiva lenders to provide loans to over 95,000 borrowers with more than $28 million dollars lent through Kiva.org. Urwego has a strong social impact mission and tailors loan products to low-income and underserved clients, particularly clients who don’t have the collateral to get a loan and are typically excluded from the regular financial system. Urwego, with the support of Kiva lenders, has served over 69% women with nearly $19 million dollars in loans. While historically a stable and sustainable organization, the global pandemic has led to Rwanda being under lockdown, which has severely impacted Urwego’s operations including reducing their ability to disburse loans and to receive repayments on the loans they disbursed before the crisis. Like many other businesses, Urwego is unable to operate normally as a result of the crisis, leading to a need to access flexible working capital. This loan will allow them to kickstart recovery, getting capital to borrowers who need it urgently to re-start their businesses. This loan is part of Kiva’s Crisis Support Loan program to assist our Field Partners directly so they can continue to support our borrowers. Because it is part of a pilot program, this loan may have a higher risk.