The National Aboriginal Capital Corporations Association (NACCA) was founded 20 years ago as an organization that was borne out of what are known as Aboriginal Financial Institutions (AFI), which were first created in the late 1980s by Aboriginal leaders, the Government of Canada, and a Native Economic Development Program initiative. The primary mandate was to address the lack of available capital to finance Aboriginal small-business development.

AFIs were created to provide repayable, interest-bearing loans to Aboriginal small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that were unable to secure loans from highly-regulated conventional lenders due to risk tolerance levels.

Several AFIs joined together to form NACCA and retain their autonomy. The purpose of NACCA was to increase the number of Aboriginal entrepreneurs in Canada and provide opportunities for Aboriginal entrepreneurs to be successful.

This is an excerpt from the Canadian Business Journal.

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