Visa, NBK announce winners of first Kuwait edition of She’s Next program

Visa, NBK announce winners of first Kuwait edition of She’s Next program

KUWAIT: Visa (NYSE: V), the world’s leader in digital payments, together with National Bank of Kuwait announced Yasmeen Al-Kandari and Yuser Al-Mutawa from “Seeds” as the much-anticipated winner of its first She’s Next grant program for Kuwait. The winner was selected at an award ceremony held at NBK headquarters branch, Kuwait City.

Handpicked from a pool of over 880 applicants, the winning women-owned small business in Kuwait will receive a $50,000 grant along with a year of business coaching from International Trade Centre (ITC), a United Nations and World Trade Organization, and $3,000 of Amazon Web Services credits. The business coaching will be implemented by the ITC She Trades Initiative, ITC’s flagship women and trade program.

The winner was selected from a pool of applicants representing a range of sectors including but not limited to textiles, education, food and beverage, professional services, beauty and wellness. A jury evaluated entries based on the following criteria: the progression of applicant’s entrepreneurial journey; robustness of their business metrics; digital presence; and a demonstrated ability to problem-solve confidently.

The members of the jury included: Carl Manlan, VP, Inclusive Impact & Sustainability, CEMEA, Visa, Ankush Devadason, Head of Solutions Delivery, GCC, Visa, Arti Manilal Thanki, Head of FinTech