Federal agency promotes commercial Pan Africanism /*Trump dismantles the MBDA

[get these nets]

Minority Business Development Agency, B&C International, and National Business League to grow U.S. MBEs through partnerships with African Small, Medium, and Micro Enterprises
February 3, 2021


Today, the U.S. Department of Commerce Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA), B&C International (B&C), and The National Business League announce an initiative to strengthen commercial engagement between the Federal Government, U.S. Minority Business Enterprises (MBEs), and African Small, Medium, and Micro Enterprises (SMMEs). To operationalize this effort, business resource centers funded by philanthropic and corporate sources are being established across Africa, with the first in Cape Town, South Africa. The business resource centers are the outgrowth of more than four years of discussions with African and other international business leaders at the annual Select USA Investment Summit around providing greater access to global markets for U.S. MBEs.

Through a Memorandum of Understanding, MBDA and B&C are establishing a partnership to create and identify significant opportunities for MBEs by exposing them to business opportunities on the continent of Africa.

“This partnership with B&C International supports our need for a more robust economic approach for U.S. MBEs and African SMMEs to foster foreign direct investment, joint ventures, and merger and acquisitions,” said MBDA Acting National Director Edith J. McCloud. “This will help them gain the scale necessary to position them for opportunities within global supply chains.”

With the recent progress toward the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) agreement, Africa will continue to be a tremendous opportunity for economic growth for U.S. and African small businesses. The business resource centers will organize on the ground ecosystems for U.S. MBEs, promote import and export opportunities, and provide access to market information.

The National Business League, the oldest and largest trade association for Black businesses in the U.S and founded by Booker T. Washington, will lend its connections to 2.6 million small businesses to the initiative. “This is a pivotal time. We will foster commerce-driven activity between Africa and the U.S., by strengthening Black and African businesses throughout the diaspora” said Ken L. Harris, Ph.D., President/CEO of the National Business League, Inc.

“Through this work new doors have been opened, progress has been made, but there is still more to be done. These business resource centers will show the collective power of our MBE’s and African businesses,” says Mr. Robert J. Brown, CEO, B&C International.

“We have a storied contribution on the continent of Africa. I am proud of B&C’s history in South Africa and of the future we are dedicated to create, but now is the time for a new narrative. This partnership helps create a blueprint that includes U.S. MBEs and African SMMEs as keys to American and African economic prosperity,” said Larry Yon, Senior Partner with B&C International.

This is not B&C’s first blended social and economic impact center in South Africa. In March 2020, before Covid-19 spurred global lockdowns, B&C in partnership with Careerbox, a South African recruitment and skills development organization, opened a library and skills development center in Umlazi, South Africa.

“By including the U.S. MBDA and other partners, these business resource centers will be an access point for U.S. small businesses and corporations to tap into the potential of the African talent pool, solve global problems, and create meaningful economic impact in America and the continent of Africa,” stated Lizelle Strydom Pottier, Managing Director of Careerbox,

 

[ORDER_66]

 

[newworldafro]

Been saying this should happen organically up here for years.

• I'll give props when they are due.

to that effort

 

[Waldo Geraldo Faldo]

Minority Business Development Agency, B&C International, and National Business League to grow U.S. MBEs through partnerships with African Small, Medium, and Micro Enterprises
February 3, 2021


Today, the U.S. Department of Commerce Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA), B&C International (B&C), and The National Business League announce an initiative to strengthen commercial engagement between the Federal Government, U.S. Minority Business Enterprises (MBEs), and African Small, Medium, and Micro Enterprises (SMMEs). To operationalize this effort, business resource centers funded by philanthropic and corporate sources are being established across Africa, with the first in Cape Town, South Africa. The business resource centers are the outgrowth of more than four years of discussions with African and other international business leaders at the annual Select USA Investment Summit around providing greater access to global markets for U.S. MBEs.

Through a Memorandum of Understanding, MBDA and B&C are establishing a partnership to create and identify significant opportunities for MBEs by exposing them to business opportunities on the continent of Africa.

“This partnership with B&C International supports our need for a more robust economic approach for U.S. MBEs and African SMMEs to foster foreign direct investment, joint ventures, and merger and acquisitions,” said MBDA Acting National Director Edith J. McCloud. “This will help them gain the scale necessary to position them for opportunities within global supply chains.”

With the recent progress toward the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) agreement, Africa will continue to be a tremendous opportunity for economic growth for U.S. and African small businesses. The business resource centers will organize on the ground ecosystems for U.S. MBEs, promote import and export opportunities, and provide access to market information.

The National Business League, the oldest and largest trade association for Black businesses in the U.S and founded by Booker T. Washington, will lend its connections to 2.6 million small businesses to the initiative. “This is a pivotal time. We will foster commerce-driven activity between Africa and the U.S., by strengthening Black and African businesses throughout the diaspora” said Ken L. Harris, Ph.D., President/CEO of the National Business League, Inc.

“Through this work new doors have been opened, progress has been made, but there is still more to be done. These business resource centers will show the collective power of our MBE’s and African businesses,” says Mr. Robert J. Brown, CEO, B&C International.

“We have a storied contribution on the continent of Africa. I am proud of B&C’s history in South Africa and of the future we are dedicated to create, but now is the time for a new narrative. This partnership helps create a blueprint that includes U.S. MBEs and African SMMEs as keys to American and African economic prosperity,” said Larry Yon, Senior Partner with B&C International.

This is not B&C’s first blended social and economic impact center in South Africa. In March 2020, before Covid-19 spurred global lockdowns, B&C in partnership with Careerbox, a South African recruitment and skills development organization, opened a library and skills development center in Umlazi, South Africa.

“By including the U.S. MBDA and other partners, these business resource centers will be an access point for U.S. small businesses and corporations to tap into the potential of the African talent pool, solve global problems, and create meaningful economic impact in America and the continent of Africa,” stated Lizelle Strydom Pottier, Managing Director of Careerbox,

Can you post a link to the article

 

[get these nets]

Can you post a link to the article

It's a press release

Media outlets posting it today will run it as is.

Minority Business Development Agency, B&C International, and National Business League to ...

 

[get these nets]

Been saying this should happen organically up here for years.

• I'll give props when they are due.

to that effort

It's been happening organically for decades. Unless you're reading Black Enterprise magazine or Black alumni newsletters it would slip under the radar.

People folding their arms and declaring that certain things are "over" are discussing things that they don't participate in, and have zero effect over. It's like me saying that I'm not gonna marry Kenya Moore. hehehe

But yeah, this is a good look that the MBDE is helping to facilitate trade and commerce between AAs and continental Africans.

 

[.r.]

..

 

[get these nets]

CNN Op-ed from last week. Mentions how increasing access to foreign markets could help Black U.S. based businesses.

Black business owners are facing ruin. They need help now

January 27, 2021

Far too often, the opportunity to obtain an education, secure a job, access quality health care or provide for your family is still determined by the color of your skin.

While the work to close the racial divide is not easy, it must be done. This is more than a moral mandate -- racial equality is also an economic imperative and a matter of America's competitiveness.
In its Business Case for Racial Equity, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation notes that our economy stands to gain $8 trillion by 2050 by eliminating racial inequalities, many of which resulted from historical race-based decisions, actions and policies such as segregation, redlining and mass incarceration.
This lack of opportunity and mobility is at the root of many of our country's social problems -- crime, poor education, neighborhood decay and the like. And the combined effect has been particularly hard on Black-owned businesses.
U.S. Chamber of Commerce research shows that 66% of minority-owned businesses are concerned about permanently closing as a result of the pandemic. And a study from the National Bureau of Economic Research reports that 41% of Black-owned businesses have already closed from February to April 2020.
That's nearly half.
While the overall decline is noteworthy, the data shows that differences among business closure rates across racial and ethnic groups are even more striking. Black businesses experienced the most severe decline, followed by Latinx business owners (32%) and Asian (26%). In contrast, the number of White business owners fell 17%.
Black-owned businesses are not only job creators, but important anchors in our communities and threads in the fabric of our society. Strengthening, and in some cases rebuilding, the economic infrastructure in Black communities is critical to our country's success.

President Biden and Congress must work together to advance sound policies and initiatives that free up capital and contracts for Black-owned businesses. In addition, we can help Black business owners understand the global marketplace and access the global consumers outside America's borders.
Everyone must work together toward this goal: The Small Business Administration can work to streamline government lending processes and unbundle large contracts; the Department of Commerce can do more to include Black-owned businesses in international trade missions; the Export-Import Bank, which assists in facilitating US exports of goods and services, can expand its outreach and financing to Black-owned companies wishing to sell and export their products around the world.
Finally, we must ensure that people are prepared to fill the jobs that Black-owned businesses create. That requires developing targeted policies and programs to close the workforce skills gap and mitigate the automation risks Black workers face. Efforts should include enhancing opportunities for higher education, such as investing in Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), strengthening job training and re-skilling programs and increasing access to apprenticeships and internships.

Elected officials alone cannot solve the economic disparities that have plagued America for years. The business community also has an important role to play. Targeted private sector investment in Black communities, enhanced access to corporate supply chains and the development of high-growth businesses that can create better, higher-paying jobs are critical steps to closing the gaps.
Working together -- business and government across both sides of the aisle -- we can accomplish real and sustainable change to address the racial inequalities that still exist in America and ensure that all people have a real chance to live their American Dream.
#########
Rick C. Wade is senior vice president of strategic alliances and outreach at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, where he leads the Chamber's Equality of Opportunity Initiative

 

[get these nets]

03/17/25

Full statement

Ranking Member Maxine Waters Slams Trump’s Late-Night Assault on Underserved Communities and Small Businesses

democrats-financialservices.house.gov

Today, Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA), the top Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee, released this statement following news that late Friday night the Trump Administration signed Executive Orders to gut both the Community Development Financial Institutions Fund and the Minority Business Development Agency.

“Late Friday night, Donald Trump took his cruelty and assault on underserved communities another dangerous step forward by ordering the dismantling of the Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI) Fund and the Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA). As history shows, generations of segregation and subjugation faced by communities of color have contributed to a lack of wealth building opportunities and a horribly unequal playing field.

“For more than three decades, CDFIs throughout the country — in rural, native, suburban, and urban communities alike — have stepped in to provide financial products and services for all families, including those who have been historically and systematically shut out from access to the traditional banking system. We saw just how crucial a role CDFIs played during the pandemic when our nation’s biggest banks refused to deliver badly needed relief to small businesses who were hit hard by the pandemic – instead prioritizing their wealthy concierge clients. In fact, Democrats and Republicans worked together during Trump’s first term to ensure CDFIs could serve as lifelines for these communities during a difficult time and played a pivotal role in helping many small businesses keep the lights on and protect what they worked so hard to build. More recently, Trump’s new Secretaries of Treasury as well as Housing and Urban Development claimed that CDFIs were ‘very important’ and had ‘value,’ but this announcement marks a significant betrayal of those words and past bipartisan efforts.

“The MBDA was established in 1969 within the first 100 days of President Nixon’s presidency as the only federal agency solely dedicated to the growth of minority business enterprises. Not even Nixon could turn a blind eye to how rigged the system was against communities of color. We saw the attack against the agency bubble up just last year when an extremist Trump judge chipped away the MBDA’s core mission by ruling the agency must now open its doors to every race. Therefore, this decision hurts small businesses that are in most need of capital and business resources.

“Let me be crystal clear, small businesses are the backbone of our economy, and all entrepreneurs should be given the chance to succeed. Small businesses are also the heart of our communities, and when given the chance, they create millions of jobs and drive economic growth in communities that need it most. Instead of gutting these crucial programs, this Administration should be supporting small businesses, strengthening CDFIs, expanding MBDA, and confronting the unjust financial system that persists today. I am deeply appalled by this decision and will use every tool available to fight back. I urge my Republican colleagues who claim they support small businesses and want to make community banking great again to have some courage and join us to support CDFIs and entrepreneurs.”