Visa to support 10 million SMEs in Asia Pacific

Visa plans to provide support to 10 million Asia Pacific small businesses to overcome difficulties caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. (Photo courtesy Visa Vietnam)

The company has introduced a range of programmes and solutions to help small and medium enterprises (SMEs) drive efficiency and sales by accepting and making payments digitally to meet increased demand for cashless payments both online and in-store.

Visa has also formed the Visa Economic Empowerment Institute (VEEI) focused on economic and societal issues, including pandemic challenges that SMEs face and closing racial and gender opportunity gaps.

The 10 million pledge is part of a global programme that will see Visa supporting 50 million small businesses worldwide.

In Vietnam, to encourage consumers and small merchants to adopt digital payments in an easier and more convenient way, Visa has signed an MoU with NextPay to promote digital payment solutions via the Mobile Point-of-Sale (mPOS) with a goal of expanding to a community of 300,000 merchants by 2023.

Dang Tuyet Dung, Visa country manager for Vietnam and Laos, said: “At Visa, we are committed to advocating Visa’s global initiative to promote and strengthen the position of small businesses. By supporting local SMEs, which account for 98% of all enterprises in Vietnam and contribute approximately 40% of GDP, we are proud to be part of the worldwide effort to mitigate the impact of COVID-19, and spur continued economic growth at a time when communities need it most.”

In Asia Pacific, SMEs account for more than 90% of businesses and employ 50% of the workforce.