Today, during the Native Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) Network’s 5th Annual Policy and Capacity Building Summit, the U.S. Department of the Treasury (Treasury) announced an additional $8.6 million in State Small Business Credit Initiative (SSBCI) Capital and Technical Assistance (TA) approvals for Tribal governments. Treasury’s SSBCI Capital Program includes over $500 million in allocations to support Tribal small business financing programs and is the largest federal investment in Indian Country small businesses in history. Additionally, the SSBCI TA Grant Program supports programs that provide legal, accounting, and financial advisory services to qualifying small businesses.
The approvals involve an additional $7.4 million in Capital Program allocations to 11 Tribal governments, including the Penobscot consortium, which represents five Tribal governments. The Penobscot consortium, approved for up to $3.2 million, will operate a one loan participation program targeted at businesses in the hospitality and social services sectors, including funding start-up businesses with 10 or fewer employees. The group of five Tribal governments expects the program to support entrepreneurism, generate good-paying jobs, and increase tourism by financing small businesses in hospitality. Additionally, these approvals include TA Grant Program awards totaling $1.2 million. With these announcements, Treasury has now approved Capital Program applications for over $530 million in allocations and corresponding to 246 Tribal governments, as well as $5.3 million in TA Grant Program awards to 20 Tribal governments.
In addition to the SSBCI approvals, during the Summit, Treasury also announced the publication of a policy brief on “Financial Products and Services for Native Communities: Landscape and Policy Recommendations.” This policy brief arises out of the roundtable hosted by Treasury on Native communities’ access to financial services and the role of financial institutions in providing these services. The policy brief provides four recommendations, including sustaining and increasing investments in federal programs that support Tribal access to capital; pursuing relevant recommendations included in the Treasury’s National Financial Inclusion Strategy, expanding responsible financial services on Native lands, and increasing technical assistance to Native-owned small businesses.
These announcements are part of Treasury’s continuing support for Tribal economic development which has included the creation of Treasury’s first Office of Tribal and Native Affairs, $30 billion in economic development funding for Tribal governments, and advancing proposed tax guidance for long-standing Tribal tax questions to provide clarity and certainty to Tribal Nations and businesses.
Read the full list of Tribes supported by the SSBCI Capital Program and SSBCI TA Grant Program .