As part of a growing collaboration with the Mandela Washington Fellowship, GABA signals deeper engagement with African leadership development and diaspora partnership building in 2025.

 

Saturday, October 26th, 2024

 

 

Detroit, Michigan — This summer, Akindele Akinyemi, Co-Founder of the Global African Business Association (GABA), met with participants of the Mandela Washington Fellowship for Young African Leaders (YALI) at Riverside Park, in a gathering hosted through Wayne State University’s 2024 Fellowship cohort. The event was both a symbolic and strategic touchpoint, reflecting GABA’s growing commitment to fostering global connections between African leaders and African-American institutions.

 

The Mandela Washington Fellowship is the flagship program of the U.S. Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI), launched in 2014 to empower young African changemakers through academic study, leadership training, and cross-cultural dialogue. GABA’s leadership, long aligned with African business infrastructure and diaspora systems-building, welcomed the opportunity to meet with current Fellows to discuss innovation, entrepreneurship, and global development.

 

“We are not just interested in hosting conversations—we are committed to building long-term infrastructure between Africa and the United States,” said Akindele Akinyemi, Co-Founder of GABA. “The Mandela Fellows represent the next generation of African leadership, and GABA is here to be a bridge—not just for dialogue, but for deal flow, diaspora collaboration, and strategic investment.”

 

GABA has worked with YALI cohorts in the past and is preparing for a deeper and more structured partnership with the Fellowship program in 2025, including plans to integrate African Fellows into its broader ecosystem of business development, global trade, and economic diplomacy initiatives.

 

The event at Riverside Park offered Fellows the opportunity to engage directly with Detroit-based diaspora leaders, including GABA’s board and partners. Conversations ranged from pan-African business strategy and market entry challenges, to inclusive leadership models and the future of public-private partnerships across the Atlantic.

 

As GABA looks toward 2025, its growing relationship with YALI is part of a broader organizational commitment to support diaspora-aligned leadership, policy innovation, and cross-border entrepreneurship that creates sustainable impact across continents.