Visa, the world’s leader in digital payments, on March 28 announced the expansion of the She’s Next Grant Programme in Viet Nam to support women entrepreneurs in capital mobilisation, business governance and development.

Accordingly, the programme will continue to receive applications from March 28 to the end of April 29, 2022. Eligible entrants must be Vietnamese citizens who own at least 51 per cent in women-owned enterprises that have operated for at least one year.

Dang Tuyet Dung, director of Visa Vietnam, said that the Visa She’s Next Grant Programme, in partnership with IFundWomen, will provide three winning Vietnamese businesses with grants of US$10,000, along with a one-year IFundWomen Coaching membership and chances to join IFundWomen’s chain of conferences and entrepreneurs’ connections events.

Visa estimates that women-owned enterprises are in need of about $1.19 billion of capital without having found funding sources. The Visa She’s Next Grant Programme will strive to narrow down the gap by providing the capital to help women entrepreneurs realise their business goals, according to Dung.

The programme will be built based on Visa's commitments to improve the digitalisation capacity for more than 50 million small-sized businesses across the globe.

Alongside, Visa will also implement a number of other useful programmes that encourage consumers to support local firms and accompany small and medium-sized enterprises in the digital transformation process.

Nguyen Thi Tuyet Minh, chairwoman of Vietnam Women Entrepreneurs Council (VWEC), said that not only women enterprises but the whole business community highly valued Visa’s support in promoting business growth.

She said that in Viet Nam, women had made 40 per cent of total national assets, while women labourers accounted for 48.4 per cent of the country’s workforce. Viet Nam led Southeast Asian countries in the increase in the number of women-led enterprises.

However, only 37 per cent of small and medium-sized enterprises had got sufficient conditions and opportunities to access banks’ loans over the past two years. The ratio is lower compared to 47 per cent of men-led firms.

In this context, the She’s Next Grant Programme is expected to become a motivation for women entrepreneurs and women-led firms to work harder and develop innovative ideas. — VNS