Urban League of Greater Cleveland Lending Program Receives $1 Million

By National Urban League
Published11 AM EDT, Fri Apr 25, 2025
FirstEnergy

 

CLEVELAND, OH – Minority businesses in Northeastern Ohio, rejoice.

FirstEnergy Corp. has announced a $1 million dollar contribution to UBIZ Venture Capital, a small business lending program that is affiliated with the Urban League of Greater Cleveland (Cleveland, OH). UBIZ is a program that provides much needed technical assistance, loans, and counseling to African American and minority-owned businesses that have difficulty getting capital.

 The funds will be used for the new “UBIZ Access Fund II,” which will be used to make loans to qualifying businesses in Cuyahoga, Summit, Lake, and Lorain counties. Funds will be made in installments of $250,000 on a quarterly basis, with UBIZ providing FirstEnergy quarterly reports of its lending activity.

Of his company’s contribution, Rich Sweeney, FirstEnergy’s vice president of Supply Chain, said, “By contributing to UBIZ Venture Capital, our goal is to help minority owned businesses make a positive economic impact in our northeast Ohio service are, with the hope that some of these companies become FirstEnergy suppliers. Supporting UBIZ is an extension of our existing Diverse Supplier Development Program, which involves mentorship and training for minority owned businesses throughout the FirstEnergy footprint. UBIZ has a strong history of identifying and successfully supporting minority businesses and we look forward to partnering with them.”

FirstEnergy is committed to making a 20% diversity spend by 2025 for its Supply Chain expenditures.

The Urban League of Greater Cleveland’s executive vice president of Economic Development, as well as president of UBIZ Venture Capital, Michael Obi, said, “We greatly appreciate FirstEnergy’s generosity and willingness to create the UBIZ Access Fund II to expand the scope of our small business loan program. FirstEnergy’s support aligns with UBIZ’s long-term goal of sustaining existing, and creating additional, viable, minority-owned small businesses that generate jobs for community residents and build community wealth.”

For further information, please read the full article here.