President Bola Tinubu has called for a fresh continental push to end the historical exploitation of Africa’s critical mineral resources, urging African nations to unite and halt the export of raw materials.
He called for an aggressive alliance among African countries to ensure that the continent transitions from a mere supplier of raw minerals to a hub for local processing, manufacturing, and value addition.
The Nigerian leader made the call in New York, United States, during 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 (UNGA).
The President was represented by Vice President Kashim Shettima, alongside AMSG Chairman and Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dr Dele Alake.
The dialogue, themed, “From Resources to Wealth: Continental Cooperation for Mineral Value Addition, Data Sovereignty, Innovative Financing and Critical Minerals Security,” focused on transforming Africa’s mineral wealth into sustainable economic growth.
President Tinubu told African leaders and other stakeholders that “the continent could not claim to be wealthy while its children wallowed in poverty amid mines that enrich the world.”
“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 stated.
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President Tinubu regretted that mineral-rich communities lacked infrastructure, jobs and a stake in their own wealth, despite growing global demand for clean energy, artificial intelligence and advanced manufacturing.
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He noted that critical minerals such as cobalt, copper, lithium and rare earth elements had become indispensable to global supply chains and economic security.
According to him, the answer to the deprivation “must be processing, refining, batteries, components, African technologies and competitive skills”.
“The worth of a mine must be counted in the lives it improves,” he said, adding that jobs, industries, infrastructure, technology transfer, African enterprise participation and prosperity retained across generations must measure the continent’s progress from resources to wealth.
The President warned that no African country could achieve the transformation alone, saying competition through lower royalties, weaker local content requirements and excessive concessions would weaken the continent’s negotiating power.
He said Nigeria must require local value addition for new mining licences, strengthen geological data and investor access, organise artisanal miners into cooperatives, combat illegal mining and improve regulatory accountability.
He called for “reliable partnerships grounded in mutual benefit, shared responsibility, sovereign equality and respect for our priorities”, with fair market access, industrial investment and technology partnerships that build African capabilities.
On the Continental Integration and Economic Assurance Declaration (CIEAD), adopted and signed at the Roundtable, President Tinubu said “it must establish a predictable, investment-ready environment for Africa’s Strategic Mineral Corridors, harmonised policies, responsible investment and shared infrastructure.”
He urged African nations to specify national and regional contributions and called on development finance institutions and sovereign investors to propose financing platforms.
Alake said the CIEAD was a landmark continental framework designed to establish a unified architecture for Africa’s critical and solid minerals value chains.
He urged countries yet to join the AMSG to do so to promote synergy in efforts, ideas and resources needed to harness Africa’s natural resources.
Kenya’s Minister of Blue Economy and Maritime Affairs, Hassan Ali Joho, stressed the importance of domestic resource mobilisation and greater alignment of licensing procedures, while respecting the sovereignty of member states.
Representatives of Liberia, Chad and Tanzania also contributed to the discussions.