WASHINGTON D.C. - As part of the continued investment in community economic development, U.S. Congressman Dan Boren announced today $796,522 in funding for the Bank of Cherokee County, a Native Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI). The bank was selected to receive a funding award under the Native American CDFI Assistance (NACA) Program administered by the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s CDFI Fund. The award was made possible through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (stimulus package) which authorized $8 million in funding for the program. Ten Native CDFI’s nationwide were selected through a competitive application process to receive a combined total of $8 million stimulus funding.
“This award is great news for small businesses and for community development needs in Cherokee County and surrounding areas. It will provide greater economic development opportunities, and will help local businesses add jobs through expansion. I supported the stimulus package because it contained a broad-range of funding initiatives to create and save jobs in Oklahoma and the Second Congressional District, and this program will bring much needed capital to a local bank in eastern Oklahoma to help achieve that goal,” Boren said.
The Bank of Cherokee County is a certified Native CDFI established in 1907 that provides financial products and services to low-income Native American residents of Cherokee County in northeastern Oklahoma. They will use their FY 2009 Financial Assistance award to increase lending capacity to the Target Market and will use their Technical Assistance award to build organizational capacity.
The Native American CDFI Assistance (NACA) Program supports Native CDFI’s and entities proposing to become or create Native CDFIs and to build their capacity to better address the community development and capital access needs of Native American communities. The NACA Program provides financial assistance awards and technical assistance awards to certified Native CDFI’s and entities proposing to become or create Native CDFI’s. All organizations are selected for an award through a competitive application process involving a Comprehensive Business Plan review.
The Mission of the Department of the Treasury’s CDFI Fund is to expand the capacity of financial institutions to provide capital, credit and financial services to underserved populations and communities in the United States. Its vision is an America in which all people have adequate access to affordable capital, credit and financial services. For more information on the CDFI Fund, please visit our website at www.cdfifund.gov.
For more information about these awards, or about the CDFI Fund and its programs, please visit the Fund’s website at: http://www.cdfifund.gov.
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