Visa, the world’s leader in digital payments, has awarded a grant to Moroccan startup Neolli to work together to help bring the ease and benefits of digital payments to their extensive network of Moroccan artisans, all of whom run small and medium businesses.
This move is in line with Visa’s mission to advance inclusive, equitable, and sustainable growth for everyone, everywhere, and to build on to Visa’s global commitment to digitally enable 50 million small businesses by end of 2023.
Neolli, a previous winner of She’s Next, Visa’s global program aimed at empowering women-owned businesses through funding and mentoring, is led by Mariem Faghraoui, a young woman entrepreneur. Neolli is committed to promoting economic growth for local traditional artisans and the platform currently has more than 400 artisans, spread between Marrakech, Fez, Agadir, and Safi.
The platform offers local artisans access to a personalized store where they can exhibit and sell their products while maintaining a link with the end customer, in addition to, supporting craftsmen to have more attractive shopping displays, market their personal and taking care of all the logistical operations necessary to create trust between artisans and consumers.
The agreement was signed on International Women’s Day between Visa and Neolli as a reaffirmation of its commitment to empowering women entrepreneurs and small businesses by helping them with their digital transformation goals and expanding their business opportunities.
Neolli is considered a great local organization that supports traditional Moroccan artists, and Visa wishes to support its efforts further by bringing them the benefits of the global electronic marketplace and serving SMEs with faster, easier, and more affordable digital solutions, ultimately helping them to grow their customer base and leverage new market opportunities.
“This is what the small business sector needs to not just survive, but to thrive,” said Sami Romdhane, Country Manager of Morocco at Visa, adding that as a global leader in payments, Visa believes that among its duties is helping small businesses grow and prosper, especially in these challenging times.
In a recent Visa study about women entrepreneurs in Morocco, eight out of ten women said they currently accept both cash and cashless payments from their customers. Nearly one-third of women said they would use the additional funding to invest in new technologies (34%), increase the security of doing business online (33%), expand their team (33%) and create new products and enter new markets (33%).
