Upgraded job-matching app enables domestic workers to access inclusive financial services

New upgrades offer users a wide range of financial services powered by Application Programming Interface (API) with the ViViet digital banking app. Source: CARE International in Vietnam

Thousands of domestic workers will be able to manage their finances more effectively thanks to the upgraded mobile phone application JupViec.vn that is launched on December 1, 2020.

Accordingly, JupViec is a market leading technology-based job matching platform that connects workers and customers for housekeeping services via a mobile app and website. Founded in 2012, JupViec is currently providing job opportunities for over 3,000 domestic workers, meeting the needs of over 100,000 customers, covering 5 provinces nationwide, including Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Binh Duong, Da Nang, and Hai Phong.

Launched on December 1, the upgraded app is the result of the Urban Migrant Entrepreneur Capital (UMECapital) initiative, a partnership between the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT), CARE International in Vietnam, LienVietPostBank and JupViec.vn, with financial support from DFAT via the Business Partnerships Platform (BPP).

For the largely unbanked segment of informal workers like domestic workers, these upgrades mean they can now enjoy financial products designed with their needs in mind. Being able to deposit savings as small as VND100,000 per day and to get an advance on their salary means low-income informal workers have more flexibility in managing their income. For LienVietPostBank, such integration enables the ViViet digital banking app to increase market penetration and tap into the low-income customer base, one step further toward realising its ambition to have 15 million ViViet users by 2025 and become a leading retail bank that services the mass market: “a Bank for Everyone”.

In addition, LienVietPostBank has recently launched its latest digital banking app, LienViet24h, which is an updated version of ViViet, to provide customers with a comprehensive 3-in-1 digital banking platform (integrating ViViet, internet banking/mobile banking, and card services) with various smart functions.

Through this integration, micro-savings, salary advances, mobile top-ups and utility bill payments features are now accessible to over 2,000 JupViec workers.

Speaking at the launch event, Phan Hong Minh, CEO of JupViec.vn, emphasized, “Seeing a vibrant digital ecosystem with more and more diverse digital products and services accessible at the fingertips of our customers and workers alike is very inspiring to us. Working with thousands of female informal workers, we understand their financial struggles to make ends meet and support their families. Our workers are being paid monthly, but their expenditures are on a daily basis. Streamlining salary advances through the app is one step further in improving their financial well-being, thus improving their performance and retention by attending to their financial needs in a practical and efficient way.”

In addition to the integrated app, JupViec.vn, LienVietPostBank and CARE work together towards embedding gender equality in partners’ policies and business practices to ensure the benefits for urban migrant women are sustained beyond the life of the U-ME Capital initiative. The integrated app announcement today marked the milestone of the initiative’s one-year-partnership.

According to the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs, by 2020, Vietnam will have about 350,000 workers engaged in domestic work and the money spent on domestic workers and home services is projected to increase to over USD 1 billion.

CARE's survey in 2018 with over 1,000 informal workers in Hanoi also pointed out that 50.4% female informal migrants reported that they have had to borrow money for their everyday life and microbusiness needs. The majority of them reported borrowing money from unofficial sources such as friends (60.7%) and relatives (43.6%) who are also migrants.

Translated by Tu Anh