The Post & Courier
A North Charleston-based center dedicated to helping women and minorities start or grow small businesses has received a $711,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration.
The Opportunity Center, which works with businesses in Dorchester and Berkeley counties as well as Charleston, will use the grant to fund its Minority Business Development Initiative, according to a press release from the South Carolina Association for Community Economic Development. The grant will give minority business owners access to business resources with the aim of building an “entrepreneurial ecosystem” for local communities of color, the release says.
“National data indicates that 40 percent of minority-owned businesses closed during the pandemic,” Bernie Mazyck, president and CEO of SCACED, said in the press release. “This made an already challenging climate for minority-owned businesses even worse. In South Carolina, 11 percent of African American households own a business compared to 20 (percent) of White households. The funding from the EDA will assist minority-owned enterprises in the Lowcountry succeed to become the wealth-building engine for minority households, as well as well as the Lowcountry of South Carolina.”