The Maryland Department of Commerce has been awarded a $1.6 million grant from the Economic Development Administration, an agency within the U.S. Department of Commerce. The federal grant comes from the American Rescue Plan and will be matched with $396,000 from the state’s Maryland Economic Adjustment Fund.
The funding will be used to assist Maryland small businesses through MEAF’s revolving loan fund, with priority consideration given to businesses in Baltimore City and rural regions across the state.
The revolving loan fund will aim to assist small underserved businesses that do not qualify for traditional financing or lending sources, and help them recover from the pandemic, create new jobs, and grow in Maryland. The funding is expected to create 250 new jobs, retain 110 jobs and generate $210,000 in private investment.
Under the American Rescue Plan, EDA was allocated $3 billion in supplemental funding to assist communities nationwide in their efforts to build back better by accelerating the economic recovery from the coronavirus pandemic and building local economies that will be resilient to future economic shocks.
The project is funded under EDA’s American Rescue Plan Economic Adjustment Assistance program, which makes $500 million in Economic Adjustment Assistance grants available to American communities. Businesses interested in learning more should contact [email protected].