Mississippi SBA office seeing record numbers

8/4/2011

The U.S. Small Business Administration's Mississippi chapter has been busy during the current fiscal year. More than a quarter of a million dollars in SBA lending has passed through the office in the first three quarters of this year, resulting in 607 approved loans.

"That eclipses the $193,274,951 record dollar volume of loans set for the entire 2010 fiscal year," said district director Janita R. Stewart. "We established the new lending record only six months into this fiscal year and the rate of lending hasn’t diminished."

With a June unemployment rate of 10.3 percent for the state, Mississippi needs all the help with job creation that SBA lending can offer. That rate puts the state at 44th in the country in terms of overall employment. Unemployment has held nearly steady since a high of 11 percent in early 2010, which has kept Mississippi close to the bottom of the chart since the beginning of the recession.

Another boon for the state may come in the form of specialized SBA lending for women- and minority-owned businesses and those in underserved communities. More than half of the funds that passed through the office went to specialized programs, helping to build a diverse community of business owners and strong inner cities.