Mastercard Strive Aims to Enhance Capacity of 500,000 MSME Entrepreneurs

Jakarta (ANTARA) - Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth and Mercy Corps Indonesia announced that Mastercard Strive Indonesia has supported more than 500,000 micro and small enterprise (MSME) entrepreneurs by providing digital tools, financial literacy, and mentorship during 2023-2025.

This achievement was announced during the dissemination of the Third Barometer Report: Striving to Thrive: The State of Indonesian Micro and Small Enterprises 2025.

“So, this Strive journey has shown us something important, that in order to have a positive impact on our MSMEs, there needs to be synergy between the public sector, the government, the private sector, and also civil society, so that we can address the agenda together, synergize, to be able to close the gap in financing, capacity, and digital transformation to help MSMEs scale up,” said Executive Director of Mercy Corps Indonesia Ade Soekadis in Jakarta on Wednesday.

More specifically, the financial support provided helps entrepreneurs apply for micro-loans from 17 financial service providers, which has generated an aggregate of IDR 140 billion for 26,500 entrepreneurs, with a total of 97 percent being women.

In addition, they have provided digital mentorship to more than 200,000 entrepreneurs, of which approximately 100,000 entrepreneurs have adopted cybersecurity tools to protect their digital assets.

Furthermore, 56 percent of participants in the Mastercard Strive Indonesia program reported increased income, and 30 percent said they experienced increased confidence in accessing credit.

The barometer report also highlighted a worrying trend, namely that formal credit uptake continues to decline from 33 percent in 2023, 27 percent in 2024, and only 20 percent in 2025. This means that many entrepreneurs still rely on informal lenders due to high interest rates, collateral requirements, and cultural barriers.

Female entrepreneurs showed lower credit uptake despite strong business ownership patterns, reflecting supply-side barriers and ingrained financial caution. It was recorded that 16 percent of businesses led by women reported accessing credit, compared to 20 percent led by men, and 26 percent led jointly.

The report also noted that although 74 percent of entrepreneurs are not involved with business support services, those who are involved reported significant income growth.

In this context, Mastercard Strive utilizes local mentors and digital platforms such as MicroMentor to provide mentorship for small business participants in the program.

Government and private sector support is also considered very important to build trust, so the implementation of this program is considered successful in West Java, Central Java, East Java, South Sulawesi, and West Nusa Tenggara. This is said to be thanks to the alignment with local government goals, community facilitators, and the Strive Learning Network, a platform launched between the Asian Venture Philanthropy Network (AVPN) and the National Development Planning Agency (Bappenas) to strengthen the small business ecosystem.

“Although this record is commendable, we know that this work still has a long way to go because there are 62 million MSMEs in Indonesia, and we have only reached 500,000. So, even though the changes are already being felt, of course, what we have to maintain and replicate is so that it becomes a systemic change, with changes in regulations, so that it can be sustained or even better,” said Ade.