USDA opens call for loan, grant applications to support rural microenterprises
The US Department of Agriculture has opened a call for applications for loan and grants to support rural microenterprises, through its Rural Microentrepreneur Assistance Program (RMAP).
RMAP provides loans and grants to a nonprofit entity or institution of higher education — known as a Microenterprise Development Organization (MDO) — to establish revolving loan funds to provide loans to rural microloan borrowers and micro entrepreneurs, or to provide training and technical assistance to micro entrepreneurs, said Josué E. Rivera, USDA Rural Development state director for Puerto Rico.
To be eligible for a loan from an MDO, an ultimate recipient must be a business with 10 or fewer full-time employees and be located in a non-metropolitan rural area.
Applications are being accepted in the Rural Development State Office in either a paper or electronic format. The deadline to apply for the Second quarter is Dec. 31, 2020, for the third quarter is March 31, 2021 and the fourth and last quarter is June 30, 2021.
The latest financing awarded through RMAP in Puerto Rico went to PathStone Enterprise Center Inc., which received $605,000 in loan and grant funding.
