BOOST program extended to Nov. 18

BOOST Program Grant administrator and Bank of Saipan’s president and CEO John Arroyo, left, next to Rotary Club of Saipan president Wendell Posadas, and Department of Commerce Economic Development director, Jesus Taisague, speaks in the Rotary Club meeting about the extension of the BOOST Program and explains what the forthcoming SSBCI Loan Program is at the Giovanni’s Restaurant of the Hyatt Regency Saipan last Tuesday.

The deadline to apply for a Building Optimism, Opportunities, and Stability Together, or BOOST, program grant has been extended again to Nov. 18, 2022, and with that winding down soon, the State Small Business Credit Initiative Loan Program, or SSBCI Loan Program, is in the works to further help fund small businesses, according to the Department of Commerce last Tuesday at a Rotary Club of Saipan meeting in the Giovanni’s Restaurant of Hyatt Regency Saipan.

The original deadline for the BOOST Program was Sept. 18 but was first extended until Oct. 18.

After the Department of Commerce’s Economic Development director, Jesus Taisague’s presentation of the Department of Commerce’s role in the CNMI’s economic development, BOOST Program grant administrator and Bank of Saipan president and chief executive officer John Z. Arroyo, who is also a Rotary member, announced that the BOOST Program deadline has again been extended to Nov. 18.

Taisague said the extension was in part due to a large number of applicants and applicants with incomplete packets. “The program is not [meant] to deny anyone, but…to help all the businesses because as we know, all businesses in the CNMI are struggling,” he said.

Arroyo added that “the committee is trying as much as they possibly can to give people as much money as they can. …And so it’s a difficult task for the committee to kind of decide how to do this equitably, to be fair across the board. So part of the reason is just so that we give people who are still sitting on the fence, people who have not been able to get all of their documentation that they need to submit before the 18th of this month another month to get everything together, and submit their application.”

There are over 70 BOOST Program applicants so far, with almost $100 million loan requests, but the BOOST program only has about $12 million to dispense. According to Arroyo, there are some awards that have been released and announced already on Rota and Tinian, with awards to be announced soon for Saipan.

The BOOST Program Grant provides financial assistance to CNMI businesses and non-profit organizations. To apply for the BOOST Program grant, log onto https://www.boostcnmi.com.

With that, the SSBCI Loan Program is in the works with the Department of Commerce to help provide funds for businesses and startups that the BOOST Program did not satisfy or approve, through banks and the government allocated ARPA funds. According to Taisague, they hope to get it started by December this year.

The SSBCI has allocated $57 million and Taisague said that with the statistics from the BOOST Program, “…we have real statistics to show that we will be able to spend that $57 million. …We have hundreds of applicants with limited grant funding from this BOOST Grant Program. What we’ll do is…we’ll carry on all those applicants that will not be able to fulfill their business plan under the BOOST Program, but they’ll be able to access for more capital from the SSBCI.”

With the BOOST Program, Arroyo said it is just a band aid approach to businesses that were impacted negatively by the pandemic, “and then from there, if they need additional funds, or people didn’t get an award of funding…then there are other government programs that they can apply for to get financing somewhere else.”

He explained SSBCI as “basically a bank loan– anybody who wants to take advantage of this money would have to apply to the bank. They would have to meet the bank’s normal and customary underwriting and application requirements. But because of the three different programs that are available under SSBCI, it reduces the overall risk to the bank.”

More information about the SSBCI Loan Program will be forthcoming through the Department of Commerce.