WAFAA Capacity Building & Micorfinance (www.wafaalend.org)

[Guest]

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[mohammad salah]

There is new non-profit organization called WAFAA which shares the same ideas and concepts with Kiva in helping the poor with there own business.
They also have a website called www.wafaalend.org which will make you able to support theses Entrepreneurs by lending them online.
so please everybody check this website and give us your thoughts and comments about it.
and here is small summery about Wafaa:
WAFAA is an online lending platform (peer-to-peer) that allows individuals in the developed world to lend to people with small businesses in the developing world. Wafaa is tackling poverty around the world by bridging the gap between lenders and low-income entrepreneurs in developing countries. This allows social enterprises, institution lenders, and investors worldwide to communicate with one another, initiate financial transactions, and analyze market trends.
thanks again for your time.

[Peter S]

There seem some remarkable parallels between WAFAA and Kiva.  But, WAFAA appears to have borrowed not just the Kiva concept, but copied much of the wording off the Kiva website.

Just as one example, Kiva's passage about the role of the lender in assessing and managing risk on this page --
http://www.kiva.org/about/risk/user-role -- (it is by the way unfortunate that this is presented by Kiva as an image, not as accountable & quotable text) is replicated almost word for word by WAFAA in the 4 main points about the lender's role, on this page about risk and due diligence : http://www.wafaalend.org/view.aspx?id=56&show=about -- where other risk factors and roles and star ratings are again obviously just copied from Kiva.

Is there some connection perhaps, with Kiva actually encouraging and permitting the use of the same words, or did WAFAA take the plagiarism route to save on overhead and startup costs? 

I don't see any real detail on the website about who is behind WAFAA, about where and how it's constituted, no names of directors & staff, no office addresses.  The Terms of Use indicate that the legal domicile is the UK, but there is nothing on the website to indicate that WAFAA is a registered UK charity.  I see that there's a Muslim aspect to it, but I don't see any explication of that - are borrowers only Muslims in Muslim-majority countries, and is the target lender base Muslim also?  These and other questions should be answered by the website.  If what differentiates WAFAA is that it's by Muslims for Muslims, the website should be up front about that.

Having pointed out some (for me) problematic aspects, it's only fair to say that if WAFAA can channel funds from its lender base for use in the alleviation of poverty, wherever in the world that happens to be, then that would be a Good Thing.  So, good luck...


Peter

[Amy-in-PHX]

I clicked on the question "Is WAFAA a religious organization," and got a general page with 14 other questions under 7 subject headings, in two columns.  This is the url for that page:  http://www.wafaalend.org/view.aspx?show=help

The "religious organization" question appeared again on that page, but clicking on it produced no result.  I then clicked on the subject heading "About WAFAA," above the "religious organization" question, and that click took me to a page full of 16 questions, in a single column, with this url:  http://www.wafaalend.org/view.aspx?show=help&id=7

The "religious organization" question appeared again, at the bottom of the list of 16 questions, and when I clicked on the question there - eureka! - at last, the answer came up:  "Yes, Wafaa is a Muslim non-profit organization that operates according to Shari’ah laws."  The url of the page, which has no other information on it than this, is:  http://www.wafaalend.org/view.aspx?show=help&sol=77

I believe the website is a little ragged and difficult to use to find information on.  I did find a "mailing address":  Wafaa Limited, Scottich Provident House, 76/80 College Road, Harrow, Middlesex HA11BQ.  They say this about their organization:  "Wafaa is a non-profit organization registered with the CIC in the United Kingdom." 

To find useful info, you need to keep flipping back and forth between the page with the 16 questions, and the 16 pages which each contains a single answer.  Start from here:  http://www.wafaalend.org/view.aspx?show=help&id=7
I learned that WAFAA does not pay any interest to lenders, nor does it charge interest to borrowers.  To fund their operations, they take a cut of 15.5% of each loan you may make.  Here is what they say about that:  "We are mainly funded by your generous donations, and also from the 15.5% we take for each lending process."  But on a diferent page they say that 100% of what you pay goes to the entrepreneur, so I don't know how they reconcile those statements.

There are many similarities with Kiva, but I suppose no concept with great success could be without imitators for long.  "Entrepreneurs" are chosen to receive funding by "Field Partners."  Loans can stay on the site for "a month" before expiring, and a "default" is defined as six months having elapsed after the due date of the loan.

The "partners" page, which I believe means the Field Partners, lists 3 entities.  They are FATEN, the logo of which is the same one I have seen on Kiva in connection with loans in Palestine, plus IMI and WAFAA.  The Field Partners WAFAA and IMI appear to do business in Indonesia.  I did not see any explanation of the relationship between WAFAA the Field Partner, and WAFAA the web platform for microlending.

[Amy-in-PHX]

I hadn't intended to go back to the WAFAA site, but I couldn't get the inconsistency out of my mind.  Can you reconcile these two statements?  It seems that the second one is true, only if you consider the "100%" to apply to the amount you paid, after you have already deducted the 15.5% haircut WAFAA takes to cover their transaction fees and operating expenses.  I think if WAFAA wishes to avoid misleading lenders, they would revise the page of their website that appears second, below:


Q:  Will I be charged a fee when I lend?
A:  Since Wafaa is an Islamic organization and does not charge interest, we take 15.5% of the amount you lend, which covers transaction fees and any other expenses.
http://www.wafaalend.org/view.aspx?show=help&sol=15


Q:  What percent of my loan actually goes to the entrepreneur?
A:  100% of the amount you pay goes to the entrepreneur.
http://www.wafaalend.org/view.aspx?show=help&sol=75

[mohammad salah]

Reply to Peter
Thank you for your comment. Kiva is the pioneer in microfinance. Our risks are similar because they are standard risks used by any microfinance organization. Our organization is quite similar to Kiva, but we are unique in our zero interest policy.
As for the fact that our loans are given to Muslims, this is only because our field partners are in Muslim countries and these are the entrepreneurs that apply. However, please be assured that we do not discriminate against any race, ethnicity, or religion.
Wafaa is directed by Izzuddin Abdul Manaf in Indonesia and Moataz Al- Shaqaqi in London. We are an initiative made by the Indonesian Minister of Social Affairs, Dr. Salem Saqqaf Al-Jafri.

Reply to Amy
Thank you for your comment. When we say we return 100% of the loan, we mean the actual amount you decide to lend. When you decide to lend and go to the payment page, we add 15.5% to the amount you have decided to lend. For example, if you decide to lend $20, you are actually paying $20+15.5%. Since Wafaa is a non-profit organization, we take 15.5% for expenses and operational fees.
As for you question about the field partner "Wafaa", this field partner will be in charge of the Wafaa HR department. It will provide grants and scholarships to students, and lenders will be able to lend to these students. However, this field partner has not had any applicants yet.

[Amy-in-PHX]

Thanks for the clarification about the 15.5%, Mohammad.  I have always thought that Kiva, itself, would be very well-suited to Islamic lending, because we lenders do not ask for nor receive any interest on our funds.  In the Kiva model, though, a Field Partner would need to cover its operating expenses through donations (as Kiva does) in order to lend the money on to borrowers without charging interest to the borrowers.  If there were a Field Partner like that in the Kiva group of Field Partners, I am certain lenders would embrace it.  I wish you well, as you seek to grow WAFAA.