Today, Administrator Samantha Power met with Ambassador Michael Froman, Vice Chairman and President of Strategic Growth at Mastercard, to identify additional opportunities to collaborate and deepen the USAID-Mastercard Partnership. The two reviewed Ukraine's technological modernization efforts that have established the country as a digital trailblazer in Europe, and discussed how the two organizations can work together to enable other countries to make similar strides in e-governance; they also explored ways to support Ukraine's broader economy.
The two discussed joint efforts to increase digital inclusion, especially for farmers, through Mastercard's Community Pass platform. They also discussed how to unlock private capital toward pressing development challenges, including through partnership with the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation. In particular, they took stock of the recent successes from a shared effort with the DFC to provide credit to women-owned SMEs in India, as well as the USAID-supported Project Kirana, and discussed opportunities to replicate these models in other geographies and sectors.
