Four disciplines. One mandate: move value across borders.
Since cofounding the Global African Business Association in Inkster, Michigan in 2014, Akindele Akinyemi has turned relationships into infrastructure: supply chains, institutions, public investment, and a trade hub in Detroit built to carry African and Caribbean products into American markets.
From the producer's door to the American shelf.
He identifies products and producers with real potential, then builds every link needed to bring them to scale. In 2023 he founded GABA Marketplace Center, a Detroit wholesale distributor of African and Caribbean food and goods serving grocers, restaurants, and retailers nationwide.
- Direct sourcing partnerships with suppliers in West Africa
- Products prepared to meet U.S. import requirements
- Warehousing, packaging, and freight coordination from Detroit
- Market entry strategy for African and Caribbean brands
In August 2024 he helped bring a Nigerian Consulate trade delegation to Michigan for talks with Wayne County leadership and the Port of Monroe, positioning Michigan's ports as a gateway for Nigerian trade.
He doesn't join networks. He builds them.
GABA began in Inkster, Michigan in 2014 with four founders. By 2019 it had gone global, and today it is an economic development platform spanning trade facilitation, technical assistance for small and midsize businesses, capital formation, and a legislative network.
- Technical assistance for growing businesses
- Partnerships with government and accredited institutions
- A legislative network shaping diaspora policy
- A membership that is 80% women
In 2025 he worked with Michigan State Senator Erika Geiss to introduce SB 267, creating a trade commission between Michigan, Africa, and the Caribbean. It passed the Michigan Senate in December 2025.
Vision is cheap. Funded vision is rare.
He has played a principal role in structuring and closing transactions in the seven figures, and he knows how to move public dollars toward projects that last.
- $1 million in state investment for a new warehouse, distribution, and trade hub facility in Detroit
- More than $3 million in state funding secured for Southeast Michigan
- Helped open one of the first African and Caribbean food markets in Ann Arbor
- Investment strategy that connects local markets to foreign trade
The trade hub is built to serve businesses within roughly 350 miles of Detroit, putting African and Caribbean supply within reach of much of the Midwest.
When the institution failed, he rebuilt it.
As President of the Library Board of Trustees, he led the $1.8 million effort to build Inkster a new public library.
- Board leadership through closure, groundbreaking, and delivery
- A $1.8 million capital effort completed
- A new Leanna Hicks Public Library opened in March 2021
- Public infrastructure for an underserved community
Ground broke in 2019. Despite a pandemic delay, the new library opened to the public on Hamlin Drive in March 2021.
How the work gets done.
Identify
Find the product, producer, or opportunity with the strongest path to market.
Structure
Build the deal, the partners, and the capital that make it real.
Scale
Move it from local markets into broader supply chains.
Sustain
Anchor it in institutions and policy so it outlasts the deal.
If you're serious about the market, you're in the right place.
Have a market to open?
Trade partnerships, market entry, board service, and speaking.