Carl Manlan, as an established leader in the inclusive impact and sustainability space, tells Platform Africa why Visa chose to support the recent WTO-ITC High Level on Women in Trade, highlighting that there are intrinsic benefits that women who succeed bring to their families, communities, and economies such as access to better health and education.
In terms of the wider perspective, Carl underlines that, regardless of the geography, it is the daily small steps that a women entrepreneur makes that will transform her children’s perspective of who they are and what they can become.
Carl also describes Visa’s She’s Next initiative for small and medium businesses, and advocates ‘going cashless’ to ensure that women led businesses do not lose out on opportunities to converse in the digital language.
Visa was one of the sponsors of the WTO-ITC High Level Event on Women in Trade held on 24-25 February in Abu Dhabi, UAE. What inspired Visa to support this initiative?
At the core of our engagement is SDG17. Partnerships for the goals is critical as no single entity can address the multidimensional aspects of socio-economic transformation. The International Trade Center (ITC) sits at the nexus of policy and implementation and at Visa, we saw an opportunity to provide women with supplemental options to thrive in the digital economy.
The convening power of the WTO-ITC meant that women entrepreneurs would get high level engagements with leaders from governments, businesses, and civil society to discuss better options to advance women’s economic empowerment and inclusion in the global trading system. Most importantly, the networks that were created allowed for women to build mechanisms for intra Africa trade and expertise for example.
The underlying objective is to make trade work for women. There are intrinsic benefits that women who succeed bring to their families, communities, and economies such as access to better health and education. Women are key drivers of economic growth and innovation, as we saw with Earlyriser from Bahrain and Eclectic Chique from Nigeria.
By supporting this event, we wanted to showcase Visa’s commitment to closing the skills and financing gaps which will allow, eventually, more women to participate fully and equally in the digital economy.
What were some of your key takeaways from this event, which included the launch of a new USD 50 million global fund for women exporters in the digital economy?
We heard the commitments and most importantly, we learnt from the experiences and insights of women entrepreneurs and businesswomen from different regions and sectors about the growth mindset that drives job creation in their communities.
It is possible because we operate in an ecosystem of willing partners. One of our key partners, Absa, will collaborate with us for She’s Next in South Africa in 2024. She’s Next is a global advocacy program that aims to support women owned small businesses through funding, training and mentorship, to take their businesses to new heights.
At Visa, we believe in the power of strengthening the ecosystem so that entrepreneurs like Aida Al-Mudaifa, She’s Next 2023 winner, can have the opportunity to share a platform with the WTO Director General, the Executive Director of ITC and the State Minister of Trade of the UAE. They are key decision makers in the trade infrastructure, thus understanding how she can expand to the GCC and beyond gives a clear example of the small barriers that could be lifted to make micro and small enterprises expand their markets. It was telling from the leadership of the region when the Saudi Minister of Trade made time to speak with Aida and gave her his card. It is often the little things that make a huge difference in a micro business’s path from small to medium and eventually to a large enterprise.
The fund is an important opportunity to bring supplemental capital to women-led businesses and enhance the work done by Export agencies around the world.
You are Vice-President for Inclusive Impact and Sustainability for Central & Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa at Visa, and you have held leading positions in corporate sustainability in your past career. What does it mean to have a focus on inclusive impact and sustainability? How does supporting women form part of this agenda?
I have always been interested in the work at the intersection of public, private and civil society organizations. It is the intersection at which the transformative power of communities happens. My current role expands my geographical learning opportunity to about half of the world from the 35 markets I was responsible for when I was based in Lomé, Togo.
In the end, regardless of the geography, it is the daily small steps that a women entrepreneur makes that will transform her children’s perspective of who they are and what they can become. In Lomé, I used to observe a young boy that would accompany his mother every morning before going to school at her corner post. She sold maize porridge to regular customers and passersby. Every day, before going to school, he had a lesson in marketing, customer service, cash management and made the connection between his own small steps and his mother’s commitment to his well-being. This is one of the reasons I do what I do. So that every child, seeing his mother, or her aunt, or her sister, or his cousin, knows that it is possible. And every small step they take to become financially literate and embrace digital financial services expands their opportunities locally, regionally, and globally.
Can you tell us about some of the work which Visa is undertaking in Africa and internationally to provide funding opportunities and coaching to women, such as the She’s Next initiative for small and medium businesses?
Mariem Faghraoui’s passion for transformation was rewarded by a She’s Next grant. She works with Moroccan artisans through Neolli to facilitate their access to the digital economy. ThriveAgric won Visa Everywhere Initiative which focuses on Fintech’s pathway to financial inclusion. In this case, Ayo Arikawe and his team leverage technology to enhance smallholder farmers’ steps into the digital economy. Agriculture is a critical piece of the equation in solving for women’s access in Nigeria and across Africa; He and his team are solving for 800,000 farmers and with pan-African ambitions.
Further afield in Kyrgyzstan, Zarina and her husband opened a Korean cosmetics store in 2009 and imported products directly from South Korea. But like many other merchants at the bazaar, she faced a challenge – a lack of access to the digital economy. The Dordoi Bazaar has a remarkable annual turnover of $3 billion, only 10% of its 60,000 merchants have a bank account. Visa stepped in, in partnership with the Dordoi Association and New Market Technologies, to help merchants digitize and expand the bazaar’s cashless acceptance infrastructure.
We also have Visa Foundation’s impact investment which allows for more capital to be made available to women-led businesses through partners like Aruwa Capital.
Visa is a strong advocate of supporting the ‘cashless’ agenda, which you have described at the WTO-ITC event, noting that cash has a cost. What are the benefits of going ‘cashless’ to women entrepreneurs and businesswomen in the African continent?
Cash has a cost. The transition must be done in small fast steps so that we reduce the risks of low adoption and remove the inefficiencies associated with handling, storing, and transporting cash. The language of the world is becoming more and more digital, thus going cashless means that women led businesses do not lose out on opportunities to converse in the digital language. Ultimately it is the opportunity to expand their markets which moves the needle towards business sustainability and impact.
As trade expands, there should not be a limitation to quality work that requires buyers and sellers to jump too many hoops. Finance and logistics go hand in hand. For example, I appreciate the work of a Nigerian tailor thus I should be able to pay for my Nigerian Kaftan and have it delivered. It is not always straightforward as it requires a friend to handle local payment and logistics. There is progress with more and more e-commerce platforms, but not yet a universal experience. The invisibility of these transactions on the merchants’ system is a disservice to his potential growth.
In what ways is Visa supporting market access and digital transition for women-led businesses in Africa and beyond?
Small and medium-sized businesses play a crucial role in driving the financial ecosystem in Africa. For us, they are anything but small. Through our expertise and vast partner network, we have been able to enable nearly 67 million SMBs worldwide since 2020, surpassing our goal of digitally enabling 50 million SMBs globally.
In Africa, our work with Djamo, Paga, littlefish, and others across the continent enable supplemental access to women-led businesses and most importantly increases the ability of individuals to transact digitally.
We announced She’s Next in South Africa in collaboration with Absa and we will expand the programs to other markets in Africa as we have already done in Egypt and Morocco.
Enabling SMBs is not just about supporting businesses; it’s also about uplifting societies, communities, and economies. There are 500 million consumers and more than 40 million merchants in Africa who still lack access to financial services. Solving for this opportunity implies that small and medium-sized businesses will continue to drive the financial ecosystem in Africa. Our continent, Africa, is amid an economic and demographic transformation. And at its core, that transformation is digital. Over the past two years, we have seen how the pandemic served as a catalyst for digital transformation. The momentum needs to continue, for women and all, with tailored offerings from financial institutions, fintechs, mobile network operators in collaboration with regulators and partners alike.
