Visa, a leading global payments technology company, and the
GSMA Mobile for Development Foundation (GSMA Foundation) have announced the
launch of the Digital Finance for All (DFA) Initiative, furthering Visa’s
decades-long efforts to increase access to the global economy for everyone,
everywhere.
This five-year initiative aims to advance digital financial
inclusion for 20 million individuals, including women, small holder farmers
(SHF), and nano, micro and small enterprise (NMSE) owners across low- and
middle-income countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America.
While digital payments use by adults in low- and
middle-income countries is up 66% from 2014, women, SHFs, NMSE owners and
globally displaced individuals continue to face barriers accessing the digital
economy. Women in low- and middle-income countries are 20% less likely than men
to hold a formal financial account[2] and
more than 30% of the world’s food is produced by SHFs yet most have
limited or no access to formal financial services like credit, loans, savings,
or insurance.
“At Visa, we believe that digital
payments are critical to including everyone in the digital economy by helping
provide access to economic livelihood,” said Chiagozie Nwabuebo, Vice President of Global Growth
& Social Impact, Visa. “Together with
the GSMA Foundation, we seek to empower those in underserved communities across
the world and provide equal access to help build better financial futures for all.”
“Mobile money can play a
transformative role in advancing financial inclusion and resilience for the
nearly 2 billion people who remain unbanked globally. However, poor digital and
financial literacy is a key barrier to accessing digital financial services,
especially for certain population segments like women, farmers and
micro-merchants.,”
said Ashley Olson Onyango, Head of Financial Inclusion and AgriTech, GSMA “We are very excited about our partnership
with Visa enabling us further drive economic empowerment and support millions
of users to access life changing financial services.”
By: Nana Appiah Acquaye
