Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 8, Number 2, 1 February 1991 — 48 get business loans from OHA fund [ARTICLE]

48 get business loans from OHA fund

By Ken lge Assistant Editor The Native Hawaiian Revolving Loan Fund, whieh started in Oct. 1988, has since loaned $1,789,500 to 48 Hawaiians to either start or continue their businesses, according to the loan fund's latest activity report.

An additional $177,700 has recently been approved for disbursement to six more Hawaiian businesses, according to loan manager Chester Cabral. About half of the loan money was used for fixed asset acquisition loans (for machinery and equipment) according to the report while the other half went to working capital loans (for operational costs).

I he loan fund has received loan requests from 487 Hawaiians totalling nearly $24 million. About one in ten applicants has been successful, Cabral said. About 90 of the requests are still undergoing review and analysis, he said. The majority of loan applications are eliminated through the screening process. But there have been many cases where loan fund staff have asked applicants for additional information needed to complete the application process and the applicants did not furnish that information. The average amount requested for eaeh loan to date is $49,219.

Most of the loan applications have been for retail and various service businesses. As expected, O'ahu has been the island with the highest amount of requests and approvals (275 and 30, respectively) followed by the Big Island (109, 12), Maui (50, 5) Kaua'i (32, 4) and Moloka'i (21, 3). To date there have been no applications from entrepreneurs on Lana'i although special efforts have been made to promote the loan fund on that island.

The loan fund, whieh comes under OHA's Eeonomie Development division directed by Linda Colburn, was established to help Hawaiians who are unable to get business financing through conventional loan sources. Cabral said roughly ten of the new businesses that were approved for loans had help with writing their business plans from Alu Like's Native Hawaiian Business Development Center.