Home

American Recovery and Reinvestment Act
The state of Ohio will receive at least $8.2 billion in federal stimulus monies. These resources will save or create more than 130,000 jobs for Ohioans and provide tax cuts to working families, while also helping to protect essential state services that Ohioans rely upon every day. ARRA will allow Ohio to direct the money into critical sectors of our economy that will create and grow jobs. 

- click here for more information - 

A central tenent of the Strickland/Fisher administration is to make state government more responsive, customer-friendly, and above all, more inclusive. Key to realizing these important objectives is the need to drive and sustain a business environment sensitive to the particular needs of minority business enterprises.

As Ohio’s lead facilitator of minority business growth, the Minority Business Enterprise Division assists in the creation, growth, and development of minority business enterprises throughout the state. A key priority of the Division is to increase the level of services statewide that support socially and economically disadvantaged businesses and emerging entrepreneurs in the urban core. New initiatives targeting urban entrepreneurship are being developed to provide business assistance to minority-owned and -operated business.

The Division’s loan and bond programs, which provide access to capital and bonding for firms that may not qualify  for traditional lending or bonding, and management, technical, and procurement assistance services are available at eight regional Minority Contractors Business Assistance Centers around the state.

Seven regional Procurement Technical Assistance Centers market and achieve a significant level of contracting and subcontracting opportunities for certified minority business enterprises and EDGE (Encouraging Diversity, Growth & Equity) businesses. Our new Minority Business Initiative strengthens our commitment by increasing our collaboration with the state’s EDGE program.

The Minority Business Enterprise Division has developed new tools for strengthening opportunities available to minority businesses. The Division has assembled the Minority Business Advisory Council to create new policies and programming ideas to improve the atmosphere  for minority business growth. Newly-established  Minority Business Development Organizations facilitate training, strategic management, networking, and mentoring opportunities with major corporations to ensure minority businesses in Ohio have access to the assistance they need to be productive and profitable.

The Minority Business Enterprise Division nurtures the success of the businesses served by convening partnerships and advocating on their behalf. Their direct, professional, and inclusive services are creating wealth and expanding economic opportunities for Ohio’s minority and EDGE business community.

The Minority Business Enterprise Division, in partnership with the Entrepreneurship and Small Business and Global Markets Divisions, hosted the first annual Minority Business International Trade conference in Columbus, Ohio, in October 2008. This first-time event focused on workshops and educational forums about exporting opportunities, was attended by more than 150 minority-owned companies, and featured keynote speaker Earl Graves, Publisher of Black Enterprise Magazine. As a direct result of the event, 10 minority-owned companies that attended the conference are now pursing business on a global scale.