Accelerate My Business: Transforming Women-Led Small and Growing Businesses in Vietnam

Vietnam’s small and growing businesses (SGBs) comprise 98% of the national economy, accounting for 40% of the total gross domestic product and 50% of the total workforce. Of those growing businesses, Vietnamese women own 17% of all micro, small, and medium enterprises and lead 27% of them. Despite their growth in recent years, women-owned and led SGBs continue to face limited access to financing and training.

We’re supporting more inclusive economic growth by equipping 25,000 women entrepreneurs in Vietnam with foundational business and financial literacy skills critical in our growing digital economy through our Accelerate My Business (AMB) program. Following successful pilots in Malaysia and Indonesia, AMB Vietnam launched in March 2024, with support from Visa.

What makes Accelerate My Business effective?

• Uses a locally-led learning approach by working with Vietnamese service providers like the Center for Women Development and local microfinance institutions Tinh Thuong One-Member Limited Liability Microfinance Institution (TYM fund), Thanh Hoa Microfinance Institution (Thanh Hoa MFI), and VietED Group, to design fit-for-purpose training curriculums in the local language.
• Trainings are accessible through a free learning platform that is easy to distribute nationwide.
• 80% of our 350 local trainers and staff are women.

AMB trainee Nga, a farmer from a remote district in Thanh Hoa, said the training and mentoring sessions helped her understand how to increase profits from her agricultural produce amidst growing competition. After completing the AMB online course, she was matched with a mentor from Thanh Hoa MFI to help her apply her business skills and digital tools to build a new business model for selling her produce.

As of June 2024, AMB has trained over 3,200 SGBs in retail, service, food and beverage, manufacturing, and agriculture. AMB continues to empower women entrepreneurs like Nga in Vietnam and is on track to reach and support 6,000 SGBs by the end of the year and 25,000 small businesses by 2026.

Accelerate My Business is part of The Asia Foundation’s Future Skills Alliance, a collective impact platform for private and public sector partners to deliver future skills at scale to the region’s underserved groups. For more information, visit https://accelerate-msme.com.