Kasha, a store that deals in health and personal care products for women has joined Jaza Duka, Mastercard’s micro-credit digital lending platform in Africa.
‘Jaza Duka’, Swahili for ‘fill up your store’, is part of Mastercard’s Track Micro Credit Program. The program is a global, inclusive credit ecosystem that aims to help micro-entrepreneurs overcome cash constraints that limit their ability to buy and sell more products and ultimately grow their businesses.
The program was launched in partnership with Unilever and KCB Bank Kenya has since expanded to include an additional 5000 Micro Small and Medium- Enterprises (MSMEs) through Kasha.
The partnership builds on Mastercard’s pledge to bring 1 billion people and 50 million micro and small businesses into the digital economy by 2025, with a direct focus on providing 25 million women entrepreneurs with the solutions they need to grow their business.
With over half its merchant members being women, Jaza Duka directly supports Kasha’s mission to ensure women in emerging markets get the products, information, and services they need for their health, self-care, and well-being.
As well as expanding to reach more MSMEs with Kasha, Jaza Duka has also evolved functionality to enable topmeup, a new overdraft-based sales service linked to a Mastercard debit card. The topmeup overdraft is enabled through collaboration with Correlaction, the fintech integrating the physical and financial value chains in Jaza Duka.
Joanna Bichsel, Kasha’s Founder and CEO said “Kasha and Mastercard have a shared commitment to empower women to reach their full potential. Through Jaza Duka we are providing female entrepreneurs in emerging markets with the tools they need to grow their business and support their livelihoods, while also enabling people in lower income communities to gain access to quality affordable health products and household goods. Kasha’s digital platform unlocks access to products, information and services; and now with our partnership with Mastercard we can remove lack of finance for MSMEs as a blocker as well. We are thrilled to be partnering with a purpose driven corporation such as Mastercard.”