The Vital Role of African and Caribbean Small Businesses in Economic Development

African and Caribbean small businesses are indispensable to the economic and cultural fabric of the United States. With over 140,000 Black-owned employer businesses generating $141.1 billion in annual revenue and employing 1.3 million workers, a significant portion of this success is driven by African and Caribbean entrepreneurs (U.S. Census Bureau, Annual Business Survey, 2021). In Michigan alone, immigrant-owned businesses contributed nearly $2.5 billion to the state’s GDP in 2022, with African and Caribbean enterprises playing a vital role in industries such as retail, healthcare, and transportation (Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity, 2022).