The Small Business Administration has increased its lend rates to black-owned businesses 116 percent statewide, the agency announced this week.
ESSEX COUNTY -- The U.S. Small Business Administration is lending more money to black-owned businesses in New Jersey, the organization announced this week.
Within the first four months of the 2016 fiscal year, from Oct. 1, 2015 through Jan. 31, 2016, the agency doled out 26 loans - totaling $5.4 million - to African American small business owners.
That represents a 116 percent increase over the number of loans, and a 74 percent increase in the amount of money, over the levels during the same period the year before, the agency said. In 2015, the SBA gave out 12 loans totaling $3.1 million to black borrowers, it said.
The average SBA loan to a black-owned business was $211,000, with the largest loan of $2 million going to a business in Irvington, officials said.
The loans, however, were unevenly distributed throughout the state, the SBA said. During the first quarter, Essex County saw the most loans to black business owners, nine, worth $2,605,000. Bergen and Burlington Counties followed, with just three apiece.
Nine of the state's 21 counties logged zero loans to black business owners in the same time period.
SBA New Jersey District Director Al Titone called the lack of loans in some parts of the state "disturbing."
"We obviously need to continue to aggressively market to our African American neighborhoods," he said, nothing that the agency plans to increase marketing and community outreach to African American business owners.
Still, SBA officials say the overall uptick in loans will continue. The SBA is on track to surpass last year's total number of loan approvals by 50 percent in 2016, officials said.
Kellie LeDet, a regional SBA administrator, credited the agency's lending partners, and specially-targeted programs, with increasing the loan amounts.
"In order to increase lending among African Americans and other ethnic groups...it is necessary for us to talk credit repair with them and it is a necessary step to helping entrepreneurs and small business owners to qualify for the financing they may need," LeDet said.
Overall, SBA loans in New Jersey were up 29 percent in fiscal year 2015, to 1,738 loans worth $822 million.
See how much money black entrepreneurs in your county were loaned in the first quarter of this year in the gallery above.
Jessica Mazzola may be reached at jmazzola@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @JessMazzola. Find NJ.com on Facebook.