IGD Report Reveals Success of Visa Inc.’s Partnership with Government of Rwanda

WASHINGTON - Dec. 17, 2013 - PRLog -- A new report released by the Initiative for Global Development (IGD) demonstrates how Visa Inc., a global payments technology company, is constructively engaging the Government of Rwanda to increase financial inclusion through electronic payments. In 2011, Visa established a strategic partnership with the Government of Rwanda to develop the country’s electronic payments infrastructure, economy, and workforce – in part, by testing and launching mVISA, a new Visa mobile money service that meets the needs of low-income consumers. The report highlights the impact of this partnership on financial inclusion, on Rwanda’s economy, and on Visa’s own business model in emerging markets.

“Visa has been proud to partner with the Government of Rwanda to deliver the convenience and security of electronic payments to Rwanda – including the mVISA mobile money service that meets the needs of people underserved by the formal financial sector,” said Gordon Cooper, Vice President of Emerging Markets Digital at Visa. “But successful partnerships require objective evaluation to determine what is working well and where there is room for improvement. For that, IGD’s impact assessment, with its flexible methodology, has proved immensely valuable.”

Based on an impact assessment conducted between March and August 2013, IGD’s report finds that the partnership has electronified the economy and laid the foundations for financial inclusion by:

-       Implementing basic infrastructure to facilitate electronic payments in Rwanda

-       Making electronic payments affordable and accessible for low-income consumers through the development of new products and services such as mVISA, Visa’s mobile-enabled branchless banking solution

-       Strengthening local capacity for financial services through professional training and development programs

-       Educating over 40,000 Rwandans in the fundamentals of money management through a nationwide financial literacy campaign

-       Enhancing Rwanda’s appeal as an investment destination and a strategic environment for testing new products and services

For Visa, the partnership demonstrates a new model for doing business in emerging markets – one which proves that large multinationals can effectively and profitably address development challenges through their core business operations and constructive engagement with governments. Financial inclusion is proving to be a sustainable, commercially-viable business proposition for Visa – one that is driving innovation and helping the company to become more competitive, profitable, and resilient in emerging markets.

IGD’s impact assessment provides an important baseline against which Visa can measure future progress and impact as it continues to invest in Rwanda. It also provides a framework to guide Visa’s operations and constructive engagement of government in other emerging markets – to ensure that the company continues to deliver on its brand promise.

“Visa’s commitment to examining their measured impact represents a growing trend among companies investing in emerging markets – to look at a broader set of parameters in understanding and evaluating their profit model,” said Helen Mant, Vice President of the Initiative for Global Development. “In response to this trend, we created igdIMPACT to help companies understand and define the impact of their core business operations.”

igdIMPACT is IGD’s corporate impact assessment approach, developed in collaboration with prominent companies from IGD’s Africa-focused business network. Robust yet flexible, igdIMPACT uses sector-specific assessment frameworks to offer a view of impacts achieved to date while highlighting opportunities to enhance commercial and social value creation in the future. IGD works with companies like Visa to improve the returns on corporate impact assessment – by sharing best practices, building new tools (and improving upon existing ones), and generating robust evidence of socio-economic impact to demonstrate the business case for poverty reduction.

About the Initiative for Global Development (IGD)

The Initiative for Global Development is a non-profit organization that drives poverty reduction by catalyzing business growth and investment in Africa. Our influential network of market-leading companies work together to enhance the commercial and social impact of their investments on the continent. IGD member companies actively engage with IGD’s experienced team of industry experts to test and demonstrate innovative business models, develop and share industry insights, and assess the impact of business operations and investments. To learn more, please visit www.igdleaders.org.