Business & Money | Tuesday 19 March, 2019 5:45 am |

Visa (NYSE: V), the world leader in digital payments, recently hosted an event in support of International Women’s Day that featured a panel discussion - “Fostering and Enabling the Next Generation of Women in Innovative Fintechs” - on how women can build, sustain, and advance their businesses despite the monetary challenges they face along the way. The panelists included Danielle Murrie, Head of Retail Products, First Abu Dhabi Bank; Kim Hardaker, Head of Etihad Guest, Etihad Airways; Arushi Joshi, Founder, AtCash; and Michelle Gervais, Vice President, Data Science for Central and Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa (CEMEA) – Visa. 

Themed “Women Entrepreneurship”, the event also highlighted the social and economic impact of fintech and the increasingly pivotal role women play in the sector. Visa’s Sirine Fadoul, Fintech Lead for CEMEA, spoke about Visa’s recently launched Fintech Fast-Track program, which empowers start-ups in the region with access to Visa’s capabilities, and how Visa is working with ecosystem partners to ensure diversity and parity when supporting fintechs.

Marcello Baricordi, Visa’s General Manager for Middle East and North Africa, said: “Visa has been actively championing the growth of women entrepreneurs and ensuring they have the right tools and platforms to succeed. This year’s theme for International Women’s Day – ‘Balance for Better’, embodies Visa’s culture as we always believe that we are much stronger as an organization when we are gender diverse and inclusive. This event was an opportunity to celebrate the women in our ecosystem, as well as our women employees and to hear their valuable views on how we can better support fintechs and women entrepreneurs across the world.”

Earlier this month, Visa reinforced its dedication to women empowerment with the launch of the first Visa Everywhere Initiative: Women’s Global Edition. The global program invites women entrepreneurs from around the world to take on FinTech and Social Impact challenges for a chance to win $USD100,000 in each of the two challenges. The program will end with a finals event to be held during the kick-off of the FIFA Women’s World Cup France 2019™.