You
- are an Australian citizen or permanent resident
- contribute at least 75% of your labour to the small business (under normal circumstances)
- earn at least 50% of your income from the small business (under normal circumstances)
Your business
- is not a farm business
- has fewer than 20 employees other than casual employees
- supplies goods or services relating to primary production to farm businesses in affected areas
- has had a reduction in the turnover; or an increase in unsecured debt as a result of drought
- is in financial need of a loan
- has the capacity to repay the loan
- is financially viable in the long term
- has existing commercial debt
- is registered for tax purposes in Australia with an ABN and is registered for GST
- operates as a sole trader, trust, partnership or private company
- is not under external administration or bankruptcy
You must
- provide security for the loan
- secure the support of your commercial lender for the proposed loan
- repay the loan
Manage your small business through the drought
Use this loan to
- refinance your debt
- pay for operating expenses
- pay suppliers
- pay salaries, wages and rent
You cannot use this loan for
- purchase of private and domestic assets
- payment of private and domestic expenses
- capital expenditure
- purchase of and/or investment in non-small business assets and expenses
- payment of tax and statutory payments
- your own labour costs
- reimbursement for depreciation of assets
- payment of dividends or other distributions of equity to owners
- activities funded under other Commonwealth and state or territory government programs.
Loan terms
Quick facts
| Amount | Up to $500,000 | Term | 10 years |
| Early settlement | No fee | Interest rate | 2.11% variable rate |
| Apply | Anytime | Application fee | No fee |
| Extra repayments | No fee | Redraw | Not available |
More terms
Percentage of total debt — at least 50% of your total debt must stay with a commercial lender.
Frequency of repayments — tailored to the cash flow of the small business.
Repayment structure — first 2 years interest free with no repayments required, then 3 years interest only, last 5 years principal and interest.
The structure of principal repayments will be dependent upon a number of key factors, including the loan amount, the purpose of the funding and the nature of the security.
The principal of the loan may be repaid (wholly or partly) at any time during the term of the loan without incurring a fee.
Full terms and conditions are available in the loan guidelines.
Before you apply
You need to check
- you meet the loan eligibility criteria
- you understand the terms of the loan
- you have read the detail in the loan guidelines
You need to have
- Australian Business Number (ABN)
- 3 years' financial history
- identity documents
- proof of your eligibility
- your business cash flow budget
Ask us a question
We are here to help
- Call us on 1800 875 675
- Email us through our online contact form
Apply
- Check the information you will need to provide.
- Talk to your commercial lender. Let them know you plan to apply for a RIC loan.
- Download and save AgBiz Drought Loan (Form 1) to your local device. This is the first form of a two-stage application process. It is important that you fully complete this preliminary application form as the information provided will help the RIC establish whether you are eligible to apply for the loan and proceed to the next step.
You are not able to save the form when opened in a browser.
To use the Fillable PDF application form you must download it to your desktop first. Right click on the link above and select 'save target as' or 'save link as' and download the form to your desktop.
Open the form on your desktop using Acrobat Reader. Make sure you save the application form regularly as you are filling it in. The fillable PDF form will not function correctly when it is opened in a web browser or other software, for example Microsoft Edge, Chrome, Firefox, Preview.
You can download a free version of Adobe Acrobat Reader DC software.
- Submit Form 1 to us applications@ric.gov.au or send to: Regional Investment Corporation, PO Box 653, Orange, NSW 2800.
- If you have any questions we encourage you to talk to our loan assessment team. You can call them on 1800 875 675
- If your preliminary application is:
- successful – you will be notified and sent an Application for an AgBiz Drought Loan (Form 2). Form 2 will ask for further information including evidence of your business's financial situation.
- not successful – you will be notified by phone and email.
Help and support
After you apply
We will assess your application against the criteria in the loan guidelines.
We may contact you by phone or email to discuss your application, if needed. We will write to you to confirm the outcome of your application.
Resources
Application forms
The AgBiz Drought Loan application process is separated into two stages.
Form 1: Preliminary application for an AgBiz Drought Loan
Complete the application form and send it with supporting documents to applications@ric.gov.au
Download: Right click on the form and save on your local device as an Adobe Acrobat Document before you begin filling out the form.
If your preliminary application is successful you will be notified and sent an Application for an AgBiz Drought Loan (Form 2).
Form 2 will ask for further evidence of the financial situation of your business. You will need to complete Form 2 in full so that the final stage of the assessment can be completed.
If your preliminary application is unsuccessful you will be notified.
Cash flow budget
You must include your business cash flow budget with your application.
We will use this to help assess your financial position, and your ability to repay the loan.
If you do not have your own budget spreadsheet, you can use our template.
Download:
This template may not meet government accessibility requirements. Contact us for help.
Guarantor asset and liability statement
You may be required to provide a guarantor's asset and liability statement with your application.
Download:
Eligible area
To be eligible for an AgBiz Drought loan, your small business must be, or have been, supplying goods or services relating to primary production to farm businesses located in an affected area. You can check the location of farm businesses in affected areas by entering their address or GPS coordinates into the eligible area map below.
These are ‘affected areas’ as defined by the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification.
Find your location
- Enter your address or GPS coordinates into the search bar.
- Use the zoom function (– and +) until you can see the boundaries of your entire farm business.
Print or save your map
- Select the print icon to activate the ‘Print’ pop-up box.
- Add a custom title (e.g. your farm business address).
- Open the print dropdown menu and choose MAP_ONLY. Your map may take a few minutes to generate.
- Select the Printout link to print a copy or save it to your computer.
- To save, right click on the image and select the option to save picture as.
- If you are having trouble printing your map, save it to your computer first.
Map of eligible areas in Australia