Visa partners with Neolli to equip Moroccan artisans with access to digital payments to expand their businesses

Casablanca – 22 March 2023 – Visa, a world 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 display, 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 a great local organization that is supporting traditional Moroccan artists and we at Visa are proud to support their efforts further by bringing them the benefits of the global electronic marketplace. Serving SMEs with faster, easier and more affordable digital solutions ultimately helps 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. He added: "As a global leader in payments, Visa believes it is our duty to help small businesses grow and prosper, especially in these challenging times as all of these efforts ultimately uplift the entire community.” 

In a recent Visa study about women entrepreneurs in Morocco, eight in 10 women said they currently accept both cash and cashless payments from their customers. Nearly one-third of women said they would use 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%).

_____

About Visa

Visa (NYSE: V) is a world leader in digital payments, facilitating transactions between consumers, merchants, financial institutions and government entities across more than 200 countries and territories. Our mission is to connect the world through the most innovative, convenient, reliable and secure payments network, enabling individuals, businesses and economies to thrive. We believe that economies that include everyone everywhere, uplift everyone everywhere and see access as foundational to the future of money movement. Learn more at About Visa, visamiddleeast.com/blog and @Visamiddleeast. 

Media Contact:
Eman ElGamal
[email protected]