The International Trade Centre’s (ITC) SheTrades initiative has teamed up with Visa in a landmark expansion of their partnership to support women and youth entrepreneurs in sub‑Saharan Africa and the Asia‑Pacific region. The newly scaled programme delivers vital business, digital and financial skills training, and unlocks access to international markets for women‑led small and medium‑sized enterprises (SMEs).
At the core of the programme is Visa’s She’s Next, which provides women entrepreneurs with mentorship, funding and networking. By connecting programme participants with the She’s Next alumni and the wider SheTrades community, the initiative will foster peer learning, sustained engagement and a supportive entrepreneurial ecosystem.
The extended collaboration reflects growing urgency to close gender and youth inequality in economic participation. ITC and Visa will bring their joint curriculum including Visa’s Practical Business Skills and Practical Money Skills onto SheTrades.com, the flagship platform for women entrepreneurs to access training, networks and investment opportunities.
According to the African Development Bank, narrowing gender and age-based disparities in labour markets and enterprises could boost economic output by as much as 34%, underscoring the potential positive impact of inclusive economic participation.
To address these barriers, the programme offers a hybrid learning experience combining online and in-person capacity building tailored to the needs of women and youth-led MSMEs in the region, including on topics such as artificial intelligence for business, financial literacy, digital payments, investment readiness and broader entrepreneurial skills.
The programme will be delivered in collaboration with a network of public and private partners, including the SheTrades Hubs in Kenya and South Africa, hosted by ABSA Bank Kenya and the Small Enterprise and Finance Development Agency (SEDFA), respectively. Microsoft Philanthropies will contribute AI-focused learning modules, which will be made available as UN public goods through the SheTrades Academy.
This marks the first deployment of the model in sub‑Saharan Africa, following its earlier launch in Asia‑Pacific during late 2023.
Pamela Coke‑Hamilton, Executive Director of ITC, highlighted the range of capacity‑building tools on offer: “We look forward to building on our partnership with Visa to enable long-term economic empowerment of women and youth, who, when fully engaged in trade, become powerful agents of change in their communities and countries”.
Visa’s senior regional leadership echoed the partnership’s impact. Patsian Low, Visa’s Vice‑President of Inclusive Impact and Sustainability for Asia‑Pacific, said: “At Visa, we believe that economies that include everyone, everywhere, uplift everyone, everywhere. Our expanded partnership with ITC SheTrades through the She’s Next initiative is a testament to this belief.”
The ITC SheTrades Initiative targets stakeholders across the trade and business ecosystem to create the right conditions for every woman, everywhere, to realize her full economic potential.
The Initiative provides women entrepreneurs and producers with access to key knowledge, resources and networks, supports policymakers on inclusive policy reforms, and leverages public and private partnerships to amplify the impact of its work.
In December 2023, ITC and Visa delivered a pilot workshop under the SheTrades Philippines Hub, training 100 Filipina entrepreneurs in export competitiveness during the country’s National Exporters’ Week in Manila. This hands‑on support reinforced the importance of dedicated export training alongside digital financial education.
Early 2024 saw the launch of a three‑part online webinar series, “Accelerating Women’s Trade in Asia‑Pacific”, targeting entrepreneurs and business support organisations to strengthen adoption of digital finance tools.
The newly announced scale‑up brings the initiative into sub‑Saharan Africa for the first time. Though details of the launch schedule countries, timeframes, partner institutions are yet to be published, the SheTrades partnership Visa is expected to deliver adapted training materials and e‑learning modules tailored to local contexts.
According to analysis by McKinsey, advancing gender equality in Asia‑Pacific alone could add US $4.5 trillion to GDP by 2025. Gender‑inclusive trade offers similarly powerful upside across Africa. By leveraging Visa’s widely recognised financial literacy curriculum and ITC’s trade network, the partnership addresses multiple structural gaps digital literacy, financial inclusion and export readiness.
Across sub-Saharan Africa, women are estimated to own close to 60% of MSMEs, while earning 38% less in profits. Structural barriers such as limited access to finance, digital technologies and tailored business support continue to impede their full participation in formal economies.
The investment in women-led youth-led SMEs is aligned with global development priorities, including the UN Sustainable Development Goals (particularly SDG 5 on gender equality and SDG 8 on decent work).
The SheTrades partnership Visa was announced during the Global SME Ministerial Meeting, organised by ITC in collaboration with South Africa’s Department of Small Business Development, where Visa contributed to discussions on financing solutions for sustainable small business growth.
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