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Monday, the “NewsOne Now” panel discussed a recent Wall Street Journal report that found black-owned businesses receive just 1.7% of the $23.09 billion in total SBA loans. According to the WSJ:

Black entrepreneurs have largely missed out on a rebound in federal small-business lending since the financial crisis ended.

More than four years into the nation’s economic recovery, African-Americans looking for loans are struggling to overcome deeper financial distress, tighter lending standards and cutbacks by some lenders.

U.S. financial institutions made $382.5 million in Small Business Administration loans to black-owned businesses in the fiscal year ended Sept. 30, according to an analysis of the agency’s data by The Wall Street Journal. Black borrowers received 1.7% of the $23.09 billion in total SBA loans.

The percentage is down sharply from 8.2% of overall SBA loan volume in fiscal 2008. By number of loans, black-owned small businesses got 2.3% of the federal agency’s roughly 54,000 loans last year, down from 11% in 2008. Read more.

The WSJ notes that SBA loans are a crucial source of financing for many entrepreneurs. To explain the drastic decline in loans to black business owners, SBA officials point to tougher scrutiny of loan applications, a decline in small SBA loans and the impact of the financial crisis on the credit scores, – thus, the eligibility – of black borrowers.

Listen to what Roland Martin, Eric K. Ham and Armstrong Williams had to say about the report.

Be sure to listen to “NewsOne Now” with Roland Martin, weekdays at 7 a.m. EST and watch at 9 a.m. EST on TV One.

SBA Issuing More Loans But Not To Black Businesses  was originally published on newsone.com