National Bank of Cambodia, Ministry of Women’s Affairs, and Visa launch program to improve women’s financial literacy

01/16/2020

Program seeks to connect with Cambodian women in both rural and urban areas, arming them with knowledge about entrepreneurship, the digital economy, and finance.

 

The National Bank of Cambodia (NBC), the Ministry of Women’s Affairs (MoWA), and Visa, the world’s leader in digital payments, today launched a year-long program aimed at improving the financial literacy of Cambodian women, with a particular focus on empowerment via digital platforms.

The project, entitled “Promoting Financial Inclusion for Women and Women Entrepreneurs”, will seek to engage young women and female entrepreneurs, especially in rural areas, who aspire to set up a business or already run a micro-business, in addition to a number of female high school and under-graduate students. Additionally, the project aims at building the technical capacity of staff at MoWA, in order to help them better address the needs of women in Cambodia.

Today’s kick-off event included a number of workshops on issues around women’s financial literacy, national strategy on financial inclusion and recommendations for developing financial literacy as well as promoting women entrepreneurs. Over the course of the program, participants will be able to engage in vocational training opportunities, as well as workshops being run across the provinces of Preah Vihear, Siem Reap, Kratie, and SteungTreng, with themes such as “Financial and Digital Literacy for Entrepreneurship Development” and “Access to safe Financial Services”. In each of these provinces, the program will be largely operated out of their respective Women’s Development Centers (WDC), which are run by the MoWA.

H.E. Dr. Ing Kantha Phavi, Minister of Women’s Affairs, said: “Cambodia requires more to strengthen in a thriving entrepreneurial ecosystem, such as access to finance, financial education, supportive cultures, and  institutional support. This hampers Cambodia’s ability to capitalize on its high growth potential, and all of our country’s productive, innovative and creative talent, which is indispensable in order to compete in this fast-changing world. Cambodia’s female entrepreneurs are mostly participants in the micro and informal economy and most of them are lacking in necessary financial literacy skills. This disadvantages them in the areas of business development compared to their male counterparts. The program launched today plays a pivotal role in strengthening women’s financial literacy as well as enhancing their capability to step out of the vulnerability of informal microenterprises.”

Her Excellency Neav Chanthana, Deputy Governor of NBC, said: “The NBC has acknowledged financial literacy as a key to enhance financial inclusion in Cambodia and to achieve the goals set in the National Financial Inclusion Strategy 2019-2025. In this regard, the NBC in collaboration with stakeholders and development partners have been launching financial literacy campaigns by focusing on consumers in order to ensure the understanding, maintaining and using of information to access formal financial services.”

Ms. Chum Monika, Visa Country Manager for Cambodia, said: “At Visa, we’ve run financial literacy programs around the world and we’ve seen first-hand the powerful impact these programs can have on both individuals and communities. This is the third year we’ve supported financial education initiatives in Cambodia and we look forward to continuing to drive the financial empowerment of individuals, as well as the country’s ongoing economic development.”

Visa has been running financial literacy programs worldwide for over two decades, tailoring the program to address the needs of individual markets, and reaching demographics that range from young children, to university students, to adults.

For more information about “Promoting Financial Inclusion for Women and Women Entrepreneurs”, please visit https://www.mowa.gov.kh/ and https://www.facebook.com/mowa.gov.kh.

 

 

About Visa Inc.

Visa Inc. (NYSE: V) is the world’s leader in digital payments. Our mission is to connect the world through the most innovative, reliable and secure payment network - enabling individuals, businesses and economies to thrive. Our advanced global processing network, VisaNet, provides secure and reliable payments around the world, and is capable of handling more than 65,000 transaction messages a second. The company’s relentless focus on innovation is a catalyst for the rapid growth of connected commerce on any device, and a driving force behind the dream of a cashless future for everyone, everywhere. As the world moves from analog to digital, Visa is applying our brand, products, people, network and scale to reshape the future of commerce. For more information, visit About Visa, visa.com/blog and @VisaNews.