Visa and Visa Foundation have announced a five-year, $100 million commitment and new efforts to support underserved and women-led small and micro businesses (SMBs) in the Asia-Pacific region.
The program aims to advance digital financial inclusion, stimulate job creation, and increase access to capital to drive economic mobility. Through this pledge, the Foundation will collaborate with and complement the work of local partners to drive access for underserved communities.
Visa also announced a new initiative to further accelerate digital enablement of underserved SMBs in the United States and developing economies. The effort will initially be focused on APEC economies including Indonesia, Mexico, Peru, the Philippines, and Vietnam, where cash still accounts for most financial transactions and much of the population does not have access to digital payment platforms.
“Small businesses are anything but small to Visa. Over the past three years, we’ve seen them shift from leveraging digital payments to survive, to now harnessing the power of digital to improve efficiency and reach new customers,” said Alfred F. Kelly, Jr., Executive Chairman at Visa and Co-Chair of the APEC CEO Summit 2023.
“Visa is committed to continue expanding equitable access and extending digitization for underserved and women-led SMBs globally, so that payments can truly be a catalyst for growth,” he added.
Visa has exceeded its three-year goal of digitally enabling 50 million SMBs globally by June 2023 and has now helped nearly 67 million SMBs.
-x-250px(H)-copy (1).png)
.jpg)
