Magic Johnson recently announced that EquiTrust Life Insurance Co., which the NBA icon owns a majority stake in, is providing $100 million in capital to fund federal loans for minority and women business owners who have been marginalized by the COVID-19 pandemic, as CNN reports.
In partnership with MBE Capital Partners, a lender that specializes in asset-based loans for minority-owned small businesses, EquiTrust will distribute the loans via the federal government’s Paycheck Protection Program.
The loans are slated to support people of color and women who operate businesses in underserved communities, according to a news release.
“These are incredible businesses, small businesses, that have been the pillar of our community that also employ a lot of black and brown people in our community,” Johnson said on MSNBC on Sunday (May17). “… We wanted to make sure that minority-owned businesses got small business loans through the PPP program.”