What we do
Entrepreneurship and Access to Business Funding Opportunities
Canada Bureau for African and Caribbean Immigrants (CBACI)
In its Statistics Canada’s 2023 Black Business Owners in Canada 2021 research paper, Stats Canada, reported that the Black community (4.3%), the third-largest racialized group after the South Asian (7.1%) and Chinese (4.7%) populations, had an unemployment rate of 14.3%, the fifth highest of the 12 racialized groups reported in the census. In addition, Black men had the lowest income levels compared with other men. In 2020, the annual employment income of Black women and men averaged 84% and 69% that of their White counterparts, respectively.
The research paper goes on to assert that in order to deal with these unfavourable labour market conditions, Black people, mostly immigrants, and other racialized groups may turn to entrepreneurship. Business ownership can be an important driver of economic growth by promoting innovation and job creation. At the individual level, business ownership is generally associated with higher incomes than non-business owners (Grékou and Gueye, 2021).
However, starting a business is not an easy prospect for any person, regardless of their race; moreso for Black immigrants to Canada, who face challenges not faced by their white Canadian counterparts. For example; a report by the Canadian Black Chamber of Commerce (2021) indicated that, generally speaking, the Black community is not aware of the financing programs offered by the Business Development Bank of Canada or by Export Development Canada. This finding is also reflected in the Canadian Survey on Business Conditions from the second quarter of 2021. The report further cites the interesting fact that of the businesses owned by racialized groups (12.0%) in general or the Black population in particular (13.6%) were twice as likely as all businesses (5.9%) to be unaware of the support or credit programs related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
These are the challenges which our programs at CBACI will seek to address through various programming; including;
- Dissemination of information on available credit programs from city, provincial, Territorial and Federal programs.
- Facilitation of discussions on Credit ratings and how that relates with access to finding from banks and other institutions
- Working with universities and other training institutions and local Business Chambers to provide training in various business-related courses and training