President Bola Tinubu has called for a renewed continental effort to end the exploitation of Africa’s critical mineral resources and promote local processing and value addition.
Tinubu, represented by Vice-President Kashim Shettima, made the call at the third Africa Minerals Strategy Group (AMSG) High-Level Roundtable on Critical Minerals Development in Africa.
The roundtable was held on the sidelines of the ongoing 81st Session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA). It was convened and chaired by Tinubu alongside AMSG Chairman and Minister of Solid Minerals, Dr Dele Alake.
Themed “From Resources to Wealth: Continental Cooperation for Mineral Value Addition, Data Sovereignty, Innovative Financing and Critical Minerals Security,” the meeting focused on transforming Africa’s mineral wealth into sustainable economic growth.
Tinubu urged African nations to unite and halt the export of raw materials, calling for stronger cooperation to transform the continent from a supplier of raw minerals into a hub for local processing, manufacturing and value addition.
Addressing African leaders and other stakeholders, he said the continent could not claim to be wealthy while its people remained in poverty despite its mineral resources enriching other parts of 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 said.
Tinubu lamented that mineral-rich communities continued to lack infrastructure, jobs and a fair share of the wealth generated from their resources.
He noted that growing global demand for clean energy, artificial intelligence (AI) and advanced manufacturing had made Africa’s critical minerals indispensable to global supply chains and economic security.
He said the solution to the continent’s challenges lay in processing, refining, battery and component production, African technologies and the development of competitive skills.
“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,” he said.
The president warned that no African country could achieve the desired transformation alone, adding that competition through lower royalties, weaker local content requirements and excessive concessions would undermine the continent’s negotiating power.
“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 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 said revenue from the mining sector rose from approximately N6 billion in 2023 to more than N38 billion in 2024, and between N68.1 billion and N70 billion in 2025.
He also cited major foreign investment commitments and the development and commissioning of large-scale lithium processing capacity in Nasarawa State as evidence of the sector’s potential.
Tinubu said his administration’s mining policy required minerals extracted in Nigeria to support local industries, workers, skills and communities.
He added that ongoing reforms showed that firm regulatory terms could attract serious investment.
The president called for reliable partnerships based on mutual benefit, shared responsibility, sovereign equality and respect for Africa’s priorities, including fair market access, industrial investment and technology partnerships that build local capabilities.
He urged AMSG member countries to speak with one voice in advancing the continent’s collective interests, stressing that partnerships must not create dependency or inequality.
On the Continental Integration and Economic Assurance Declaration adopted and signed at the roundtable, Tinubu said it should establish a predictable, investment-ready environment for Africa’s strategic mineral corridors.
He stressed that the declaration must be backed by a binding programme with clear timelines, financing, implementation plans and public accountability.
He also urged African countries to specify their national and regional contributions, while development finance institutions and sovereign investors should propose financing platforms.
Declaring the roundtable open, Tinubu called for stronger continental cooperation to retain Africa’s mineral wealth and advance industrial growth.
He said Africa’s strength lay in its people, markets and ingenuity, urging countries to integrate their markets, mobilise local capital and negotiate collectively where their interests aligned.
Tinubu added that mineral resources alone could not guarantee prosperity without vision, investment, industry and political will.
Earlier, Alake said the group was proposing a Continental Integration and Economic Assurance Declaration (CIEAD), a framework designed to establish a unified structure for Africa’s critical and solid mineral value chains.
He said the gathering reflected the progress made in the continent’s solid minerals sector and the growth of the AMSG.
Alake urged African countries yet to join the group to do so, saying greater cooperation would help coordinate efforts, ideas and resources for the development of the continent’s natural resources.
He added that Africa’s mineral ambitions could not be achieved through policy implementation alone, but required integrated partnerships covering financial transactions and infrastructure development.
Kenya’s Minister of Blue Economy and Maritime Affairs, Mr Hassan Ali-Joho, also underscored the importance of domestic resource mobilisation in driving solid mineral development in Africa and beyond.
He said AMSG members needed to uphold transparency, remain competitive and work towards greater alignment of licensing procedures.
