To learn how to join Zidisha, visit our borrower information page at https://www.zidisha.org/microfinance/borrow.html. Zidisha is a lending community that offers high-achieving people the chance to raise loans limited only by each person’s record of responsible performance. Zidisha does not fund the loans itself. Rather, Zidisha manages a website, www.zidisha.org, that allows ordinary people all o
ver the world (the lenders) to fund loans of their choice and to communicate directly with the borrowers. Membership in Zidisha is highly selective, and submission of an application does not guarantee acceptance. If an applicant passes the review process and is approved for membership in Zidisha, he or she will have access to offer loan funding opportunities to Zidisha lenders using the Zidisha.org website. First-time Zidisha loan sizes are small, but maximum loan amounts increase each time a member repays a loan on time according to the agreed monthly installment schedule. Late payments will reduce the amounts a member can borrow in the future, and on-time payments will increase a member’s maximum loan amount. Zidisha does not charge any fee to create a member account or to apply for a loan. Zidisha deducts a new member registration fee from the disbursement of the first loan only after the first loan is funded, in accordance with the fee amounts specified in the Zidisha.org website. Interest rates are composed of a flat 5% fee to cover money transfer costs, plus the flat interest rate that each borrower chooses to offer to lenders. Each Zidisha applicant and member has an account on the Zidisha.org website, with his/her own username and password. Members use their accounts to view current maximum loan sizes, post loan applications, check loan repayment balances, request rescheduling of their loan repayments if needed, and post comments to lenders.
