These agreements are part of Mastercard's commitment, as a founding member, to the Partnership for Central America (PCA), according to the monitoring of the Latin American Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CELIEM).

"Empresariedad Femenina 2022" 1, 60 percent of women business owners in Central America mentioned that they finance their business activities with their own resources due to a lack of access to financing options, and that the high costs to formalize their business present an additional obstacle.

Mastercard is working to address these challenges by ensuring that women entrepreneurs can access and leverage the tools and resources necessary to start, build and grow their businesses as an integral foundation for their communities.

This includes a commitment to digitize 300,000 women's businesses in Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador over the next five years, providing them with accessible digital financial tools to increase their sales and access to credit that will enable them to expand their businesses, foster sustainability and promote their contribution to local economies.

"We know that communities realize greater returns when we empower women, and in particular women entrepreneurs, through the tools, capital and resources they need to preserve and grow their businesses", said Michael Froman, Vice Chairman and President of Strategic Growth at Mastercard.

Strategic Growth at Mastercard. "As we work in public-private sector collaboration, our priority must focus on the long-term prosperity of these women entrepreneurs and their businesses as critical contributors to the local economy and job creation."

Driving Impact through collective action

The company is also harnessing the power of collective action by partnering with organizations such as Accion, INCAE Business School, Cargill and PriceSmart. With initial support from the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth, Accion (in collaboration with the Genesis Entrepreneurship Foundation) will develop an innovation ecosystem for financial technology startups in the agricultural and small business sector.

The ecosystem will empower one million women and other social innovation startup founders to access business and technology collaborations, data sharing standards, open banking frameworks, and funding over five years.

In collaboration with PriceSmart and Cargill, Mastercard will work with its partner INCAE Business School to launch the Women's Entrepreneurial Growth Initiative, an effort to support 120 women-led small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Honduras and Guatemala and support them in gaining access to markets and the capital needed to grow their businesses and support job creation.

"The global pandemic has exacerbated inequalities around the world. According to the World Bank 2, women have been the hardest hit in terms of employment and income loss.

For Mastercard, driving a sustainable and equitable digital economy where everyone can thrive means providing women entrepreneurs, small and micro business owners with the financial tools, access to capital and networks needed to grow and preserve their businesses. It means inspiring young women to see a future career in technology and business to ensure that the next generation of women is even more empowered", said Carlo Enrico, Mastercard President for Latin America and the Caribbean.

"We will continue to foster collaboration with business partners, governments and civic organizations to create the necessary impact and make a difference."

Expanding financial literacy for financial inclusion

Financial literacy is vital to the adoption of financial tools necessary for economic development, through Mastercard's Cuentas Claras digital financial education program in Central America, the company has reached more than seven million people (55% women) with accessible information on topics such as savings, loans, opening a bank account and more... since the program began in 2020.

Empowering the next generation of women leaders

In addition to supporting women-owned or led businesses, Mastercard is also committed to inspiring the next generation of women leaders interested in a career in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) through its award-winning Girls4Tech program. Mastercard will provide 5,000 girls in North Central America with education in STEM principles related to core payment business topics (i.e. fraud detection, artificial intelligence, cryptography, among others) over the next five years. The company will celebrate today's announcement with an inaugural Girls4Tech session on june 8 with 100 girls from participating schools in Guatemala City.

Extending the benefits of financial inclusion for all in northern Central America

Central America

Mastercard recently announced the launch of a new financial inclusion program in Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras with the goal of accelerating the financial inclusion of five million unbanked people and the digitization of one million micro and small businesses (MSMEs) over five years.

Under the new program, the company will work with partner banks to encourage and enable them to offer the best financial tools and solutions to unbanked individuals and MSME owners who need access to capital and tools to digitize their businesses.

The solutions include digital and physical debit or prepaid Mastercard programs for consumers, and microenterprise cards for MSME owners.

In addition, consumers and microenterprises will be able to make and receive digital payments to access social benefits, remittances (including person-to-person), point-of-sale purchases, access to small business financing, etc.