The two French finalists of the Visa Everywhere Initiative 2019: in the Fintech category (left): Annicelle Kungne and her universal payment platform WECASHUP and in the social impact category, Isabelle Mashola  and her start-up ISAHIT for outsourcing digital micro-tasks in Africa.   - DR

The card payment specialist was the first to respond as the official sponsor of the Women's World Cup. This commitment is consistent with internal efforts to make more room for women, especially at the coaching level.

"If Lehman Brothers had been called Lehman Sisters, the world would be a little different,"recalls Christine Lagarde, who is about to succeed Mario Draghi as head of the European Central Bank. The Monetary Fund she has just left is formal:  a woman's contribution to the senior management of a company translates into an improvement of between 8 and 13 points of return on investment. If banks and regulators made more room for the second gender in their governing bodies, the world would become more stable.

Everywhere Initiative

Visa also decided to make its contribution to the promotion of women in finance in general by encouraging female entrepreneurs. That's the whole point of its Visa Everywhere Initiative program. For the first time in 2019 the competition took place on a global scale with the appointment in Paris of the two winners (for twelve finalists) on 7 June, the day of the launch of the World Cup.

The first of the 2019 winners, Naureen Hyat, a Pakistani, won the prize in the category” fintech With a digital microcredit solution while the second, Cameroonian Monique Ntumngia was rewarded for her “social impact” project to transform animal waste into biogas using solar energy. The $1,000,000 prize each received is complemented by a mentoring and mentoring component with Visa's teams and major clients. A global support system offered to all finalists.

Launched in 2015 across the Atlantic, the Visa Everywhere Initiative has rapidly expanded to other parts of the world (Latin America, Europe, Asia, the Middle East and Africa). In four years, more than 4,000 start-ups that have raised more than $2.5 billion have competed in both fintech and social enterprise. “The scheme is intended to be sustainable,” promises Adrian Farina.

Source: The Echoes