CRBJ Biz Wire
North Charleston, SC – Thursday, January 21, 2021: Small and minority-owned businesses have been left out of the economic mainstream for decades. At the end of 2019, just 11.9% of persons of color in South Carolina owned a business compared to 20% of the white population. And though minority businesses have created 4.7 million jobs in the United States over the past 10 years, there is still a disparity when it comes to access to capital; as evidenced by the first round of the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) where 40% of minority-owned businesses were shut out and received no funding. A new Opportunity Center breaking ground on January 25th will aide and support small & minority-led businesses to help increase access to capital and promote sustainable economic growth throughout the state.