Applications open for the $500,000 USAID Grants for Internet Connectivity and Digital Financial Services

March 7, 2024 oppor4u 0 Comments

Enhancing competitive Internet connectivity networks is essential for narrowing the digital divide and ensuring widespread access to the digital economy’s benefits, including online education, healthcare, and e-commerce. By fostering interconnected economies, GDP can be boosted and new markets for goods and services can be created.

Access to digital financial services in emerging markets empowers local entrepreneurs to develop innovative solutions tailored to their specific challenges, often resulting in groundbreaking innovations that have the potential to scale globally. For instance, M-PESA, a mobile money solution, originated as a local response to an African issue and has now become a global service with demonstrated poverty-alleviating effects.

Catalytic Capital for Internet Access and DFS
Digital Invest, a USAID initiative, offers tailored support to private-sector developers of Internet infrastructure and fund managers driving digital financial services in emerging markets. Through Digital Invest, four grants of $500,000 each are available to support ISPs and DFS providers catering to underserved consumers and businesses globally.

This blended finance model emphasizes the strategic use of grant funding to maximize impact, catalyze growth, and align with market-driven approaches.

Funding for projects,
Assistance for initial capital needs,
Additional grants for current portfolio companies,
Expert guidance to expedite the success of individual businesses,
Suitable operational and transaction expenses,
This call will prioritize enhancing financial accessibility, fostering the growth of reliable technology service providers, and giving utmost importance to consumer protection and cybersecurity in all collaborations. The program aims to promote competition and options, and guarantee that emerging market nations have secure alternatives to tech companies, infrastructure, and platforms supported by authoritarian regimes.