If you are a minority business owner looking for a little extra cash for your business, your solution may be here.

The U.S. Department of Commerce’s Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA) has announced that it will give approximately $4.3 million in funding over the next five years for three new MBDA Business Centers (MBC) in Boston, Massachusetts, Minneapolis, Minnesota and Riverside, California. The money is being funded in an effort to stimulate job creation and support the economic growth of minority firms across the country.

According to the U.S. Small Business Administration, “small businesses — those with fewer than 500 employees — are generally the creators of most net new jobs, as well as the employ­ers of about half of the nation’s private sector work force, and the providers of a significant share of innovations, as well as half of the nonfarm, private real gross domestic product.”

The administration reports that, in 2008, 57.2 percent of Americans were employed by small businesses with fewer than 500 employees. Additionally, from 2000 to 2008, there was a 22.5 increase in African-American self-employed individuals.

The new minority small business centers will be a part of a national network of 45 MBDA business centers that provide assistance to local minority entrepreneurs.  As an agency within the U.S. Department of Commerce, the MBDA centers offer strategic business consulting services that focus on large and private contracts, as well as access to global markets and financing.

“Minority-owned businesses are an integral part of local, national and global business communities,” said MBDA National Director David Hinson. “The services they provide and the jobs they create generate trillions of dollars in economic output. By investing in our Business Centers, we are ensuring that minority-owned businesses get the direct assistance they need to be successful and vital contributors to the U.S. economy.”

$7.8 million in grants were given to fund 27 MBDA business centers earlier this year.

Minority business owners who are interested in receiving assistance from an MBDA Business Center can visit www.mbda.gov.

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