By Stella Odueme
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has urged African countries to forge a stronger continental alliance to retain the value of the continent’s mineral resources through local processing, manufacturing and industrial development.
Tinubu made the call in New York, United States, while declaring open the Africa Minerals Strategy Group (AMSG) High-Level Roundtable on Critical Minerals Development in Africa, held on the sidelines of the 81st Session of the United Nations General Assembly.
The President, who was represented at the event by Vice President Kashim Shettima, said Africa must move away from its traditional role as an exporter of raw minerals and instead build industries around its vast natural resources.
According to a statement issued by the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Communications, Office of the Vice President, Stanley Nkwocha, the meeting was chaired by Tinubu and attended by Shettima, Chairman of AMSG and Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dr Dele Alake, African leaders, ministers and other stakeholders.
The roundtable was themed, “From Resources to Wealth: Continental Cooperation for Mineral Value Addition, Data Sovereignty, Innovative Financing and Critical Minerals Security.”
Tinubu said Africa could no longer afford to export raw materials and subsequently import finished products manufactured from the same resources.
“For generations, Africa has furnished the materials of prosperity elsewhere. Our duty is to ensure that the future being fashioned from African minerals has room for African ambition,” he said.
He noted that mineral-rich communities across the continent continued to face inadequate infrastructure, limited employment opportunities and insufficient participation in the wealth generated from their natural resources.
According to him, rising global demand for clean energy, artificial intelligence and advanced manufacturing has increased the strategic importance of cobalt, copper, lithium and rare earth elements.
He said Africa must therefore prioritise mineral processing, refining, battery production, component manufacturing, technology development and skills acquisition.
“The worth of a mine must be counted in the lives it improves. Jobs, industries, infrastructure, technology transfer, African enterprise participation and prosperity retained across generations must measure our progress from resources to wealth,” Tinubu said.
The President warned that African countries risked weakening their collective bargaining position if they competed against one another through lower royalties, weak local-content requirements and excessive concessions.
He said greater continental cooperation would provide African markets with scale, strengthen industrial integration, expand financing opportunities and improve the continent’s negotiating position.
“Fragmentation leaves us exporting raw materials and buying finished goods at a premium. Cooperation gives our markets scale, our industries integration, our financing reach and our negotiations authority,” he said.
Tinubu said Nigeria was implementing reforms to ensure that mineral resources extracted in the country contribute more directly to domestic industries, employment, skills development and host communities.
He listed measures including local value-addition requirements for new mining licences, improved geological data and investor access, organisation of artisanal miners into cooperatives, stronger action against illegal mining and improved regulatory accountability.
The President disclosed that revenue from Nigeria’s mining sector rose from about N6 billion in 2023 to more than N38 billion in 2024, and between N68.1 billion and N70 billion in 2025.
He also pointed to major foreign investment commitments and the development and commissioning of large-scale lithium processing capacity in Nasarawa State as indications of the sector’s potential.
Tinubu urged African countries to learn from Nigeria’s experience while building partnerships founded on mutual benefit, shared responsibility, sovereign equality and respect for national priorities.
He also called on AMSG members to maintain a common position on issues affecting Africa’s mineral interests, stressing that continental cooperation must not create new forms of dependency or inequality.
On the Continental Integration and Economic Assurance Declaration (CIEAD) adopted at the roundtable, Tinubu said the framework should establish a predictable and investment-ready environment for Africa’s Strategic Mineral Corridors.
He said this would require harmonised policies, responsible investment and shared infrastructure, adding that the declaration must be supported by clear timelines, financing arrangements, implementation mechanisms and public accountability.
The President further urged African countries to define their respective national and regional contributions, while calling on development finance institutions and sovereign investors to establish appropriate financing platforms for the continent’s mineral development.
“Africa’s power resides in its people, markets and ingenuity. No outsider will organise our continent or place our industrial interests above their own. We must integrate our markets, mobilise African capital and negotiate with one voice wherever our interests converge,” he said.
Earlier, Alake said the AMSG was proposing the CIEAD as a landmark framework for creating a unified architecture for Africa’s critical and solid minerals value chains.
He encouraged African countries yet to join the group to do so, saying the continent’s mineral ambitions required greater synergy in its efforts, ideas and resources.
Alake said policy implementation alone would not deliver Africa’s mineral development objectives, stressing the need for integrated partnerships in financing, infrastructure and other critical areas.
Kenya’s Minister of Blue Economy and Maritime Affairs, Hassan Ali Joho, also identified domestic resource mobilisation as a key driver of solid mineral development in Africa.
Joho called for greater transparency and competitiveness among AMSG members and alignment of licensing procedures while respecting the sovereignty of individual countries.
Representatives from Liberia, Chad and Tanzania, among other stakeholders, also participated in the discussions.