Black entrepreneurs in Canada start their businesses with an average of $35,000. White entrepreneurs start with $107,000. That is a gap of $72,000, according to a 2026 report from Toronto Metropolitan University’s Diversity Institute, and it is the number hanging over a Toronto fair that opens Friday.
The International African Arts, Crafts and Culture Fair runs Nov. 6 to 8, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day, at 1161 Weston Rd. in Mount Dennis, the west-end neighbourhood where, as a city planning history puts it, hair salons and barbershops serving Black residents came to dominate the small shops. Tickets start at $4. The organizers’ listing promises a marketplace of African-made crafts, fashion, beauty products and home goods, a fashion show called Threads of Africa with designers of African descent, live music and dance, and business sessions with investors, plus workshops on market access.
The pitch is trade as much as celebration: the fair says it wants to raise the visibility of African-owned businesses and build lasting partnerships in the creative sector. That is a real need. The same Toronto Metropolitan University report found Black-led businesses receive roughly 0.8% of Canadian venture capital, though Black Canadians are 4.3% of the population.
Black self-employment is growing, from 3.16% in 2024 to 3.53% in 2025. It is still well under the 5.5% Black share of the labour force, so the gap is not a lack of ambition. It is a lack of capital.
Who pays for the first stall
A 2023 Bain & Company study of Black founders, based on a survey of 47 entrepreneurs and 30 interviews, found that about 80% fund their firms from personal savings. About 72% of Black-owned businesses it examined earned under $50,000 a year. Only 19% of those surveyed trusted banks to act in their best interest, and 45% believed race was a barrier to funding.
One founder in the study put it this way: “I haven’t bothered approaching a bank because I’m not sure they’d approve a loan.” Another said: “Culturally, accessing credit is not a thing for us.” The study also found Black-owned firms are less likely than comparable white-owned firms to be approved for loans. A small survey is not a census, but its findings match the larger report’s.
Ottawa’s answer is the Black Entrepreneurship Program. In October 2025 the federal government renewed it with $189 million over five years. Up to $67 million goes to the Black Entrepreneurship Loan Fund, which offers loans of up to $250,000 through the Business Development Bank of Canada and is run by the Federation of African Canadian Economics. Government figures say it has approved 801 loans worth $70.6 million and reached more than 24,000 Black entrepreneurs.
“This is going to help small businesses start, scale and grow their business,” Minister Rechie Valdez said at the announcement. Tiffany Callender, co-founder and CEO of the federation, called it proof that “community can guide solutions.”
What the numbers leave out
The program is a gain, and Black founders fought for it. But 801 loans across a country with roughly 67,000 Black entrepreneurs, by the Bain estimate, is a start rather than a fix. A loan cap of $250,000 does not buy a factory, a retail lease or the inventory a designer needs to fill a department-store order. None of the figures above is broken out for African-born founders, who run a different set of businesses from Caribbean-Canadian or multigenerational ones. That absence matters: it is hard to fund what no one counts.
The fair itself is small, and a weekend market does not close a $72,000 gap. What it does offer is a room where makers, buyers and investors can meet without a bank branch in between. Canada’s banks and venture funds have had decades to find these founders. The designers are in Mount Dennis on Friday.
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