Visa to Invest Around INR 800 Cr to Train More Than 8500 Women Entrepreneurs

Visa India is planning to help women-led business, from various states in India, in the upcoming three years. The Company will invest USD 1 million, in various types of training and skill development programmes, under this initiative. United Way Mumbai, a non-profit organization, will act as the mediator during the whole process. This program is said to help women-owned businesses, in more than 170 villages in India, from Uttar Pradesh, Assam, Maharashtra, and Karnataka.  Estimated number of women entrepreneurs to be trained, under this programme, is over 8,500. Beneficiaries will also be connected through financial services relevant to their community and business.

Sandeep Ghosh, Group Country Manager, India & South Asia, Visa highlighted that the company was looking forward to the partnership and making meaningful contributions to those who deserve. He said, “At Visa, we have strongly advocated and supported the growth of small businesses particularly those focused on women. Our partnership with United Way Mumbai will impart financial and entrepreneurship skills to women from communities that do not enjoy the same access and privilege as many others. As women get empowered, so do the communities they represent."

The Visa-UWM project will target three core impact areas: access to knowledge and services for financial inclusion, entrepreneurship development, and formation of sustainable self-help groups.

Chief Executive Officer of United Way Mumbai, George Aikara, said, “We, at United Way Mumbai, strongly believe that India’s growth story is incomplete without the equal participation of women. Our efforts aim to address the barriers that exist to women’s participation in the social and economic spheres. We are elated to work with Visa as they share our commitment to democratizing the financial ecosystem by bringing women into it and we look forward to the support of this partnership in bringing that to fruition."

Other Schemes to Help Women Entrepreneurs

Government Schemes

Government is also not behind in terms of helping ambitious women who want to create something of their own. Both at the state and central levels there are a number of schemes which are made to increase female partnership in the business sector. Some of them are Women Entrepreneurship Platform (WEP), Udyogini Scheme, Mahila Udyam Nidhi Scheme, Bharathiya Mahila Bank Business Loan and Dena Shakti Scheme.

Non-Government Schemes

Non Government schemes, like the one we read above, are also helping to catalyse the start-up culture for women. Just like Visa, MasterCard had also launched a program, back in 2020, with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to increase digital financial literacy exclusively for women micro-entrepreneurs. This initiative named, project Kirana, was focussed on the digitisation of women-led businesses in Uttar Pradesh India.

In June, the India wing of Google had also announced an accelerator program exclusively for women. Named as Google for Startups Accelerator Women Founders program, this program will help businesses in groups, by mentoring and providing other benefits to 20 women entrepreneurs in every cohort.