Tata Communications, MasterCard to financially empower 100 million women

NEW DELHI: Tata Communications and MasterCard have partnered to financially empower 25,000 women in developing economies like India, Nigeria, Indonesia and Guatemala and aim to take the number to 100 million by 2020.

The global telecommunications and payments technology firms and their network of partners will realise this vision by taking a non-linear implementation approach, the two companies said in a joint statement.

The companies have joined hands to bring their shared vision to life over the next five years through mobile platforms comprising a range of financial, health and education applications and services, it added.

The programme will kick-off with pilot projects in India, Nigeria, Indonesia and Guatemala, targeting 25,000 women, serving as microcosms and replication of these microcosms will enable scale with a vision to reach 100 million women by 2020, it said.

"Three billion people will come online over the next decade primarily from the developing world. We now have an opportunity to unshackle women from endless cycles of poverty and dependency by providing them with access to information and economic opportunities," Tata Communications CEO ( Growth Ventures Group) Rangu Salgame said.

In developing countries, 200 million fewer women than men are online and about 300 million lesser women than men own a mobile phone, they said.

"Two billion adults globally, majority of them women, still don't have a safe and easy way to receive, store and use their money.

"We see an opportunity and responsibility to empower women with access to and control over their finances through digital financial tools," MasterCard vice chairman Walt Macnee said.