The CNMI government has expended $1 million in funding for small businesses in the current quarter.<\/p>\n
The CNMI Department of Commerce, through the Commonwealth Development Authority, has deployed the funds as part of the U.S. Department of the Treasury\u2019s State Small Business Credit Initiative, a statement from the Governor\u2019s Office said.<\/p>\n
According to the statement, the funds were used \u201cto attract private lending and investment in small businesses, often by partnering with local financial institutions.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve had success working with private lenders and investors to deploy these funds for the benefit of CNMI entrepreneurs and small business owners,\u201d said Commerce Secretary Mark O. Rabauliman.<\/p>\n
Rabauliman is also the allottee of the U.S. Treasury SSBCI funds.<\/p>\n
\u201cThrough these funds we\u2019ve helped small businesses hire new workers, expand their operations and continue to be the engine that drives our state\u2019s economy,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
According to the official, the funding resulted in 42 new jobs and $2.2 million in private investment.<\/p>\n
Commerce has an additional $12.5 million that it will continue to deploy to help small businesses obtain the capital and investment needed to grow, Rabauliman said.<\/p>\n
Second tranche<\/strong><\/p>\n Rabauliman also clarified the U.S. Treasury\u2019s decision on the second tranche of funds for the CNMI.<\/p>\n \u201cWhile we continue to work hard to deploy 80 percent of the first $4 million tranche as originally set forth for June 30, we are pleased that the U.S. Treasury, during our last SSBCI Conference, decided on the modified language,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n He said if a participating state has not qualified for its second disbursement by June 30, 2015, the U.S. Treasury \u201cwill terminate the availability of un-transferred allocated funds if the participating state has not expended, obligated or transferred any of its allocated funds during the six months preceding June 30, 2015.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhat the modified language means is that the CNMI SSBCI program is qualified to apply for its second tranche of $4 million after deploying 80 percent of the first tranche even after the set date of June 30 because we have demonstrated funds deployment of more than $1 million before and during the past six months. We will continue to do so. We also have loans in the pipeline with our participating banks, and we expect to fulfill the 80 percent requirement sooner than anticipated,\u201d Rabauliman said.<\/p>\n The SSBCI was created when President Obama signed into law the Small Business Jobs Act of 2010 on Sept. 27, 2010. Through SSBCI, the U.S. Department of the Treasury awarded $1.5 billion to fund state economic development programs that support small businesses and small manufacturers.<\/p>\n The SSBCI program, introduced to the CNMI in 2012, allocated $13.2 million to the CNMI to be used for small business loans.<\/p>\n The allocation is divided into three tranches and the first tranche is set to expire this June.<\/p>\n Press secretary Ivan Blanco earlier said the CNMI was able to expend \u201ca little over 20 percent\u201d of the first $4 million.<\/p>\n Invitation for small firms<\/strong><\/p>\n The CNMI\u2019s SSBCI funding is distributed through the CDA\u2019s Collateral Support and Loan Purchase lending programs.<\/p>\n The programs are designed to help small businesses with 750 or fewer employees obtain loans from their local banks for working capital, inventory, real estate or equipment purchases, or lines of credit, including construction loans for qualified projects.<\/p>\n \u201cI encourage entrepreneurs and existing business owners to take advantage of the SSBCI program. That business venture you have been considering but don\u2019t have the capital? That\u2019s where this program comes in. Come in and see us,\u201d said Manny Sablan, executive director of CDA.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The CNMI government has expended $1 million in funding for small businesses in the current…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":49,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[366,26,3926,4261],"class_list":["post-202520","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news","tag-cda","tag-cnmi","tag-manny-sablan","tag-ssbci"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202520","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/49"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=202520"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202520\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=202520"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=202520"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=202520"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}