Business and Industry
Guaranteed Loans
The Business and Industry (B&I) Guaranteed Loan Program helps
create jobs and stimulates rural economies by providing
financial backing for rural businesses. This program provides
guarantees up to 90 percent of a loan made by a commercial
lender. Loan proceeds may be used for working capital, machinery
and equipment, buildings and real estate, and certain types of
debt refinancing. The primary purpose is to create and maintain
employment and improve the economic climate in rural Alaska.
This is achieved by expanding the lending capability of private
lenders in rural areas, helping them make and service quality
loans that provide lasting community benefits. This program
represents a true private-public partnership.
B&I loan guarantees can be extended to loans made by eligible
lenders in all areas of Alaska outside the Municipality of
Anchorage.
Assistance under the B&I Guaranteed Loan Program is available
to virtually any legally organized entity, including a
cooperative, corporation, partnership, trust or other profit or
nonprofit entity, Indian tribe or federally recognized tribal
group, municipality, county, or other political subdivision of a
state.
Intermediary Relending Program
The Purpose of the Intermediary Relending Program (IRP) is to
finance business facilities and community development projects
in rural areas. This is achieved through loans made by the Rural
Business-Cooperative Service (RBS) to intermediaries.
Intermediaries relend funds to ultimate recipients for business
facilities or community development. Intermediaries establish
revolving loan funds so collections from loans made to ultimate
recipients in excess of necessary operating expenses and debt
payments will be used for more loans to ultimate recipients.
Who May Borrow?
Intermediaries may be private nonprofit corporations, public
agencies, Indian groups, or cooperatives.
Ultimate recipients may be private or public organizations or
individuals.
Rural Business Enterprise Grants
USDA Rural Development makes grants to
public bodies, private nonprofit corporations, and
federally-recognized Indian tribal groups to finance and
facilitate development of small and emerging private business
enterprises.
Eligible uses of funds are: technical assistance (providing
assistance for marketing studies, feasibility studies, business
plans, training etc.) to small and emerging businesses;
purchasing machinery and equipment to lease to a small and
emerging business; creating a revolving loan fund (providing
partial funding as a loan to a small and emerging business for
the purchase of equipment, working capital, or real estate); or
to construct a building for a business incubator for small and
emerging businesses. GRANT FUNDS DO NOT GO DIRECTLY TO THE
BUSINESS.
Eligibility is limited to public bodies, private nonprofit
corporations, and federally recognized Indian tribal groups.
Public bodies include incorporated cities and towns and
villages, boroughs, townships, counties, States, authorities,
districts, Indian reservations, and other federally-recognized
Indian tribal groups in rural areas. The small and emerging
businesses to be assisted must have less than 50 new employees,
less than $1 million in gross annual revenues, and be located
outside the Municipality of Anchorage.
Rural Business Opportunity
Grants
Rural Business Opportunity Grants (RBOG) are
made to promote sustainable economic development in rural
communities with exceptional needs. This is accomplished by
making grants to pay costs of providing economic planning for
rural communities, technical assistance for rural businesses, or
training for rural entrepreneurs or economic development
officials.
To be eligible for a RBOG applicants must be a public body,
nonprofit corporation, Indian tribe, or a cooperative with
members that are primarily rural residents. They must have
significant expertise in the activities they propose to carry
out with the grant funds, and the financial strength to ensure
they can accomplish the objectives of the proposed grant. They
must be able to show that the funding will result in economic
development of rural area (any area of Alaska that is not within
the boundaries of a city with a population in excess of 10,000
inhabitants.) The project must include a basis for determining
the success or failure of the project and assessing its impact.
Rural Economic Development Loans
and Grants
Loan Purpose
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Provides zero-interest
loans to electric and telephone utilities financed by
the Rural Utilities Service (RUS), an agency of the
United States Department of Agriculture, to promote
sustainable rural economic development and job creation
projects. |
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