Visa Reveals Plans to Unveil Visa Everywhere Initiative, She’s Next Empowerment Programs in Kenya

In the coming 12 months, Visa plans to roll out specific Kenyan variants of its Visa Everywhere Initiative and She’s Next global financial innovation and women’s empowerment programs.

In collaboration with financial institutions, Visa’s She’s Next program will be introduced in Kenya in 2023 with a focus on helping female entrepreneurs with their fundraising and operational requirements. Additionally, in 2023, Visa will host the first round of its Visa Everywhere Initiative (VEI) fintech challenge specifically for Kenya.

Aida Diarra, Senior Vice President and Head of Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) at Visa, stated that the company was thrilled to be able to work with the Kenyan government and its partners to bring its global startup programs to the country. We have also seen firsthand how transformative digital transformation projects have been for small businesses in Kenya, and we look forward to working together to close any remaining gaps in access to financial services for these firms, particularly for women.

The VEI program encourages start-ups to compete to address tomorrow’s business concerns and present innovative solutions to Visa’s extensive network of partners.

The program also gives entrepreneurs a place to show off their goods and get the help they need to grow. The initiative has assisted firms from more than 100 countries in raising more than $2.5 billion in funding since its introduction in 2015, solving one of the main hurdles encountered by early-stage entrepreneurs.

ArifPay, an Ethiopian fintech firm, was named the winner of the Visa Everywhere Initiative in 2021. The increased efforts come after the opening of Visa’s first pan-African Innovation Studio in Nairobi, Kenya, in April 2022. This state-of-the-art facility enables co-creation of solutions for payments, trade, and money mobility that are prepared for the future.

Visa stated last year that it would be expanding its global She’s Next project to support female entrepreneurs on the continent by providing the useful information and tools they need to expand and progress their companies.

There are an estimated 7.4 million small enterprises in Kenya, and Visa wants to digitize five times as many of them over the next five years. Following a June 2020 commitment to allow 50 million SMBs to become digital, Visa has personally supported more than 40 million SMBs globally since the start of the epidemic.

Visa has announced a five-year, $200 million commitment to promote SMBs globally, with a focus on promoting women’s economic progress.

As a part of this strategy, Visa unveiled a number of regional projects, including a US$2.4 million donation to the non-profit Hand in Hand to carry out the Kenya Micro Enterprise Success program (KMES). In contrast to the original aim of 10,200, the program has so far worked directly with 10,750 recipients to improve their quality of life and financial resilience. Overall, the program has improved 8,708 businesses, 86% of which are owned by women, and created 5,178 jobs compared to its initial objective of 2,766.

In order to accelerate the digital transition, the company has also stated that it will invest $1 billion in Africa. “The Hand in Hand partnership is an example of the impact we can have through collaboration,” said Eva Ngigi-Sarwari, Country Leader for Kenya at Visa. “Our extended commitment to enabling SMBs is testament to our belief in the potential of this segment to improve lives and drive economic growth for our country.”