Born and raised in Fiji, Priya moved to New Zealand for University after which she joined Deloitte Auckland as a Graduate Audit Analyst in July 2012. Currently a Manager with Deloitte, she works with an exciting portfolio of clients that ranges from Airlines to Apple Growers! After qualifying as a Chartered Accountant, Priya spent four months on secondment to Deloitte London where she conjured Microsoft Excel magic on weekdays and embraced her inner nomad with trips to Europe on weekends. Having explored thirty countries in the last six years – travel is one of Priya’s four passions – business, food & social entrepreneurship being the other three. Priya is the CEO & Founder of two social enterprises – Mentor me Fiji Foundation which has been working with orphans to foster academic development in Fiji since 2013; and most recently, Karma Collective – an organisation based in Auckland that brings corporates, young professionals and university students together to solve business problems for developing world entrepreneurs, at zero cost to the entrepreneur. Having grown up in a developing country, she is very excited to be a part of the 30th Kiva Fellowship class and looks forward to seeing first-hand, the impact of microfinance in the field.
Fellows Blog Posts by Priya Singh
Sep 22, 2016
Kyrgyzstan
Over the last four months, I have been serving as a Fellow with the American University of Central Asia (AUCA), a Kiva field partner in Kyrgyzstan. AUCA is an education loan field partner through which students in need of financial aid are supported with $1,100 USD loans by Kiva lenders. A 4.5 year grace period and 0% interest makes this loan product unique. A key piece of work during my fellowship has been creating a Kiva Community at AUCA.
Due to the nature of...
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Aug 18, 2016
Kyrgyzstan
In December 2007, two things happened almost simultaneously: 1.) I enrolled in a Finance and Applied Mathematics dual-degree program at the University of Auckland and; 2.) Financial markets all over the world crashed overnight This naturally meant that my entire tertiary education revolved around the recession. I spent many nights using the benefit of hindsight to build financial models that could’ve predicted the timing of America’s housing bubble burst. For one of my favourite courses, we had to perform investment analysis and research before picking a ten-stock portfolio on Google... Continue Reading >>
In December 2007, two things happened almost simultaneously: 1.) I enrolled in a Finance and Applied Mathematics dual-degree program at the University of Auckland and; 2.) Financial markets all over the world crashed overnight This naturally meant that my entire tertiary education revolved around the recession. I spent many nights using the benefit of hindsight to build financial models that could’ve predicted the timing of America’s housing bubble burst. For one of my favourite courses, we had to perform investment analysis and research before picking a ten-stock portfolio on Google... Continue Reading >>
Jul 30, 2016
Global Update
I can’t read anything. That was the first daunting realisation that hit me as my airport shuttle found a spot in Bishkek’s morning traffic jam. Before moving to Kyrgyzstan as a Kiva Fellow, I had not lived and worked in a country where the official language was not english. In the capital, Bishkek, russian is widely spoken while the native, kyrgyz is prominent in the south. When you’re traveling for pleasure, it is easy to get by with only a handful of useful local words like gelato, bratwurst and phở. Here I was, learning russian Microsoft Excel formulas and trying to do my grocery shopping... Continue Reading >>
I can’t read anything. That was the first daunting realisation that hit me as my airport shuttle found a spot in Bishkek’s morning traffic jam. Before moving to Kyrgyzstan as a Kiva Fellow, I had not lived and worked in a country where the official language was not english. In the capital, Bishkek, russian is widely spoken while the native, kyrgyz is prominent in the south. When you’re traveling for pleasure, it is easy to get by with only a handful of useful local words like gelato, bratwurst and phở. Here I was, learning russian Microsoft Excel formulas and trying to do my grocery shopping... Continue Reading >>