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ExpectMore.govExpectMore.gov home pageEXPECT FEDERAL PROGRAMS TO PERFORM WELL, AND BETTER EVERY YEAR.
Program Assessment

Program

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Bureau of Indian Affairs - Economic Development Guaranteed Loans

The program provides federally recognized American Indian Tribes and Alaska Native Groups access to financial markets that would not otherwise be available. The purpose of the program is to promote economic development on reservations.

Rating

What This Rating Means

PERFORMING
Adequate

This rating describes a program that needs to set more ambitious goals, achieve better results, improve accountability or strengthen its management practices.
  • National research indicates a severe lack of access to capital, credit and other financial services in Indian communities for small business development. A First Nations Development Institute study in 1998 revealed the second most commonly expressed need of tribes in this region (after home mortgages) was access to credit and financing for both tribal and individual businesses.
  • The program addresses a specific and unique challenge in Indian country because many lenders are not yet willing to risk financing Indian businesses for a number of reasons specific to Tribal sovereign immunity and trust land. The Bureau's statistics show that Indian businesses have only achieved a 60 percent parity position of business ownership to non-Indians.
  • The program does not have independent evaluations on its effectiveness. Such evaluations are needed to support program improvements and relevance to the needs being addressed.

Improvement Plan

About Improvement Plans

We are taking the following actions to improve the performance of the program:

  • Scheduling independent reviews to identify program strengths and weaknesses to guide progam improvements.
  • Developing performance measures to assess parity between the Tribal community and U.S. national average on several factors, such as rural per capita income; business ownership; and unemployment rates.

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