P2P-Banking.com

MyC4.com will start to offer loans in Rwanda next week. This is the fourth country MyC4 is lending at, after Uganda, Kenya and Cote d’Ivoire. Mads Kjaer, CEO of MyC4, is quoted that Ghana, Tanzania, Senegal and South Africa will follow. In 2009 he aims to serve borrowers in 20 countries in Africa. (Source)

In a danish television video (15 min, danish language), which was broadcastes yesterday, MyC4 is presented as a good alternative for investing and gains a recommendation of MyBanker.dk, a website comparing banks.

MyC4 has just published a quarterly magazine to accompany it's website. The first issue of Change has 20 pages, looks stylish and has lots of information (e.g. Senegal will be the next market, where loans are available to borrowers starting in June). Here is what MyC4 says about it's magazine:

We have just released the very first issue of CHANGE - the magazine that comes all way around MyC4: Vision, business model, partners, supporters, etc.

The unrest after elections in Kenya might also to some degree impact operations of Kiva and MyC4 which are funding p2p loans in Kenya. As Jessica Jackley Flannery of Kiva reports operations of the local MFIs in Kenya have been interrupted:

The situation on the ground appears to vary widely from community to community. However, one consistent report is that business is not operating as usual; most MFI operations have been interrupted or stopped altogether in the last week, whether due to imminent danger in their region or the general disruption in daily life caused by turbulence elsewhere. Thankfully, as far as we know, none of our partner MFI staff have been hurt. Unfortunately, due to the magnitude of the situation, we anticipate that many entrepreneurs will have been displaced, hurt, or otherwise adversely affected.

Please be patient as this situation unfolds. We expect possible disruptions in our Kenya MFI partners’ operations as the staff on the ground recover.

On MyC4.com the local provider Growth Africa Capital writes from Nairobi, Kenya:

It probably hasn't escaped your attention that the Kenyan elections didn't go a smoothly as we had all hoped and has resulted in a lot of unrest, violence, destruction and even deaths.

As I type (noon, 2nd January) things are slowly getting back to normal in Nairobi. The situation is also improving in Mombasa, though we are yet to get the same good news from the central Rift Valley, Western and Nyanza provinces.

We should have a full overview in terms of the wether any of the opportunities funded via MyC4 has been affected by the unrest by Monday (7th January).

Once safe to do so, we will look at the areas in Nairobi affected by the unrest and wether affordable funding will make a difference in the affected people's lives in terms of re-establishing their businesses. So stay tuned for opportunities that will help get Kenya and its enterprising people back to normal - your investment may make a huge difference.

While the situation in Kenya is somewhat unclear, the crisis is already impacting Uganda's economy. MyC4 only recently started in Kenya. The majority of loans are to entrepreneurs in Uganda. 
Ronald Isabirye of the local provider in Kampala, Uganda about the consequences: (more…)

Today a new MyC4 release went online. The new version allows multiple standing orders which can be targeted by country, provider and/or industry of the borrower. There are several small improvements in usability, e.g. display of borrower APR.

MyC4 users have transfered 507,000 Euro in funds, but so far only 214,000 Euro of those have been loaned. Demand in loan opportunities is lagging behind investor's cash looking for investments. The majority of lenders (investors) still is Danish - MyC4 is located in Denmark, but the number of investors in other countries is rising.

So far I am satisfied with MyC4. I have invested in more than 50 active loans - true microloans - sometimes my share is as low 10 Euro - and so far everything is going smooth. Another 16 bids are on open listing opportunities.

Today the first loan application of a borrower from Kenya was uploaded at MyC4.com. Rose Njeri runs a toys and decoration shop and wants a 2000 Euro loan to buy more products in Dubai. The loan term is 9 months, the maximum wanted interest rate is 15.5% (but currently loans at MyC4 all close at lower lender interest rates). Kenya is the third country MyC4 services after Uganda and Ivory Coast. The local partner (provider) in Kenya is Growth Africa.

13 minute video (careful the video is >300 MB, requires fast internet connection) on MyC4. MyC4 facilitates peer to peer microloans to African entrepreneurs.

The video shows the situation in Uganda and many borrowers who talk about their plans. During an audience the founder gets praise by the wife of the president of Uganda for the concept.

Highly recommended viewing.

In early September I started funding peer-to-peer microloans to African entrepreneurs on MyC4. Yesterday the first repayments were credited to my account. Siraje Sselugo, a poultry farmer, that wanted to increase the number on chicken paid on time. I had loaned him 20 Euro for a 6 month term at 24% interest. Lydia Lwanga, who sells school stationary and wants to stock more products with the loan, repaid on time. My loan to her was 15 Euro for a 6 month term at 22% interest. All the other repayments were on time, too:

(Screenshot of my account balance at MyC4).

MyC4 allows minimum bids of 10 Euro. So far my portfolio contains 37 small bids on funded loans.

MyC4.com switched today from closed beta to public beta. Now it is possible to browse the site without registering. For example click on one of the opportunities on the left of the screen and you get a good idea of the concept.

MyC4 allows lenders to do microlending to entrepreneurs in Africa. Lenders do get paid interest. Check the previous P2P-Banking coverage of MyC4.

MyC4 introduced "automatic bidding", an automatic bidding assistant that will bid on any new loan listings that match parameters set by the lender. Similar to the Standing Orders feature of Prosper.com, but not with as many selection criteria.
Mads Kjaer, CEO of MyC4, said:

The Auto Bid request came from several of the businesses we have talked with and also several Builders who asked for a quick way of get going.

You could say that this feature is also the preparation for e.g. philantrophy funds or bi-lateral organisations who want to use My4 to reach micro entrepeneurs in Africa at NO COST = 100.000 credits is 100.000 credits invested …

MyC4 now also enables the use of Paypal to transfer money into the MyC4 account.

Danish startup C4 World on it's platform MyC4 allows lenders to finance micro loans to African entrepreneurs (Afripreneurs). P2P briefly featured the MyC4 plans earlier. The goal is to "eradict poverty through business". The service is currently in beta, but signing up and lending at MyC4 is already possible.

MyC4 differs in its approach from Kiva: At MyC4 lenders do earn interest on the loans. Currently interest rates of 20-24% are typical with loan terms of 6 or 12 month.

P2P-Banking.com joined the Beta as a MyC4 Builder. The gathered experiences are published in an exclusive P2P-Banking.com review of MyC4:
http://www.wiseclerk.com/myc4-p2p-banking-review.pdf (0,4 MB, 3 pages)