Visa Foundation has declared its plan to provide $5 million in grants and impact investments in Africa, aimed at enhancing women’s involvement in the digital economy. The Foundation’s investments were disclosed during United States Vice President Kamala Harris’s Africa visit and the inauguration of a new Women in the Digital Economy Fund. This effort aligns with Visa’s recent commitment to investing $1 billion in Africa to promote resilient, inventive, and comprehensive economies.
Visa Foundation’s backing would emphasize boosting women entrepreneurs’ access to financial services and other solutions in Sub-Saharan Africa to facilitate fair digital financial access while nations continue their digitization efforts. The grants and impact investments will be assigned to initiatives that tackle the gender gap in the digital sector and bolster women’s complete involvement in the current-day economy.
“Expanding access to digital financial services lies at the core of Visa’s purpose, and our company and Visa Foundation are committed to helping address gender disparity and connecting more people to the global economy,” said Aida Diarra, Senior Vice President and Head of Sub-Saharan Africa at Visa. “We welcome and are pleased to support important global initiatives, such as the Women in Digital Economy Fund, and we look forward to working with government, NGO and private sector partners to create equitable access for all.”
Presently, approximately 500 million individuals in Africa lack access to proper financial services, and in Africa, fewer than half of adults engage in digital payments while over 40 million merchants do not receive digital payments. Visa and Visa Foundation are committed to enhancing financial inclusion by empowering small businesses and women-led entrepreneurship in Africa via diverse programs.
Since its inception, Visa Foundation has pledged more than $200 million across various initiatives in over 50 countries. The Foundation’s backing has also enabled partner organizations to reach more than 2 million small and medium-sized businesses worldwide. In Sub-Saharan Africa, Visa Foundation has provided notable grants and investments, including:
- Supporting women-led small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) through a women’s accelerator program via AfriLabs, which would provide technical assistance and access to capital.
- Providing financing to women-led SMBs in Africa and creating a foundation for SMBs to expand and scale via Aruwa Capital.
- Continuing to invest in African firms that use technology as a tool to tackle societal challenges in Africa through the TLCom TIDE Africa Fund.
In addition, Visa has launched several programs in collaboration with financial partners to promote women’s empowerment. These programs include a partnership with Vodacom in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) aimed at empowering women with disabilities, a collaboration with the Hand in Hand Kenya Micro-Enterprise Success Program, which supported 8,200 women entrepreneurs over a three-year period, and She’s Next, which provides funding, mentoring, and networking opportunities to female entrepreneurs leading growing SMBs in Egypt, Kenya, Morocco, and South Africa.