Visa introduces new program to help Ethiopian Women Entrepreneurs & Start-ups in Fintech sector

By launching two new programmes to empower women-led small and medium enterprises (SMBs) and drive fintech innovation, Visa has reaffirmed its commitment to advancing digital payments in Ethiopia. Visa announced plans to organise a second round of the Visa Everywhere project (VEI) fintech competition and launch its She's Next women's empowerment project during a visit by Regional President for Central and Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (CEMEA), Andrew Torre, to Ethiopia.

Through VEI, Visa will encourage Ethiopian fintech start-ups to discuss their solutions for addressing future payment-related problems. The inaugural VEI Ethiopia competition was won in 2021 by ArifPay, the country's first operator of point-of-sale payment systems. VEI has assisted start-ups from more than 100 nations in raising more than $16 billion in capital since 2015.

The She's Next programme from Visa is an international advocacy initiative that provides money, mentoring, and training to small companies run by women. Through the programme, Visa has given more than 250 awards totaling more than $3 million to women-owned companies since 2020.

Visa has been working throughout the financial ecosystem to deliver the advantages of digital commerce and money mobility to customers, businesses, financial institutions, and government partners ever since establishing a presence in Addis Abeba in March 2020. With the goal of transforming and advancing a digital and financially inclusive economy that is projected to contribute up to 39% of GDP by 2025, Ethiopia unveiled its Digital Transformation Strategy 2025 in 2020.

"Visa is committed to strengthening Ethiopia's payments ecosystem, and since 2020 has been working with partners to expand digital payments by creating a truly local presence," said Andrew Torre, Regional President of CEMEA at Visa. We are happy to continue to provide worldwide programmes that give fintechs and women-owned small companies the skills and resources needed to survive in the digital age because we recognise the significant role they can play in boosting economic growth.

"We are proud to bring Visa's global programmes to Ethiopia as we champion and strengthen start-up participation in the digital economy and country overall," said Aida Diarra, Senior Vice President & Head of Sub-Saharan Africa at Visa. We are excited to work to provide customers and businesses in Ethiopia the best method to pay and get paid since we have witnessed the success and effect that VEI and She's Next have had in assisting with the expansion of financial inclusion.