PH gets access to Visa’s $100-M fund for SMEs

The Philippines has been chosen as one of five Asia-Pacific economies that will have initial access to the $100 million that global payment card services group Visa and its philanthropic arm Visa Foundation have pledged to support small and micro enterprises (SMEs) around the world, especially those led by women.

The funding support is available over the next five years and has an “initial focus” on five Asia-Pacific economies—the Philippines, Indonesia, Vietnam, Mexico and Peru.

According to Visa, it has surpassed its three-year goal of digitally enabling 50 million SMEs globally by June 2023, having helped nearly 67 million such enterprises.

To build on that, United-States based Visa launched a new initiative to further accelerate digital enablement of underserved SMEs.

This was announced as part of the the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum Economic Leaders and CEO Summit held earlier this month.

In particular, Visa’s funding support is intended to help advance digital financial inclusion, stimulate job creation, and increase access to capital to drive economic mobility.

In previous years, Visa helped SMEs meet their payment needs, focusing on digitizing more ways to be paid by customers, ways to pay for supplies, goods and services, and providing access to financial skills through training and education.

Now, Visa is prioritizing economies that have “clear digital development needs,” such as the Philippines.

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In these economies, cash still accounts for the majority of the ways businesses and individuals buy and sell, and much of the population does not have access to digital payments.

“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,” Visa executive chair Alfred Kelly Jr. said in a statement.

“Visa is committed to continue expanding equitable access and extending digitization for underserved and women-led SMEs globally, so that payments can truly be a catalyst for growth,” Kelly said. INQ