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S.F. Mayor Ed Lee Seeks $1 Million Loan Fund

Ismael Diagne has gone from a valet and bellhop at a hotel at Fisherman's Wharf to owner of a company that imports traditional teas from his native Senegal.

The boost that took his Saafara venture from a tiny operation selling loose-leaf tea at street fairs to a company that now has boxed teas on the shelves of Bay Area markets like Rainbow Grocery, Berkeley Bowl and Real Food Co., he said, was a $25,000 city loan designed to grow small San Francisco businesses.

"It was big," said Diagne, a 42-year-old lower Nob Hill resident who used the money to package his teas so they could be stocked on shelves. "Before, (my customers) were just the African community and people who knew about the tea. ... Having access to every customer, that's what the loan has offered me."

On Tuesday, Mayor Ed Lee said there will be plenty more opportunities for such entrepreneurs, introducing a formal request to channel $1 million in city funds to replenish the small business loan fund that has helped Saafara and 26 other budding San Francisco companies.

The program "has been so successful, we dried up all of these funds," Lee said with a smile in announcing at a Creole restaurant that he plans to more than double funding for the loan program over the next six months.

Read more: San Francisco Chronicle SF Mayor Ed Lee seeks $1 million loan fund