Third-world lender link via eBay

Category: New websites

October 26th 07, 09:03

A new website has been launched by internet auctioneer eBay to link up small-scale investors with people in poorer countries desperately needing finance.

New site MicroPlace will act as a broker between web users and entrepreneurs or small-scale producers in the third-world, who urgently need financing to kick-start their business.

Hailing the site's 'micro-finance' as a more empowering and durable alternative to charity donations, eBay hopes to provide both the finances needed by third-world producers, and an investment incentive for lenders.

Tracey Pettengill Turner, founder and general manager of MicroPlace, said: "We really wanted to make it accessible for small everyday investors."

Affirming that lenders could obtain returns of between 1.5 and three per cent in what was a real business deal, she added: "You can earn a return on your investment and help the world's working poor."

Microfinance - the supply of small and often unsecured loans to poor households and small businesses in the third world – is a phenomenom allowed to flourish by the web.

Muhammad Yunus, a Bangladeshi banker who has pioneered micro-finance since the 1970s, was recently awarded a Nobel Peace Prize for the achievements of the schemes.

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