FG, AfDB seek greater African control of critical minerals
July 27, 2026 12:33 am
File photo: Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dele Alake.
The Federal Government and the African Development Bank have called for stronger African control over the continent’s vast mineral resources, saying Africa must stop allowing its natural wealth to leave its shores in raw form while importing finished products made from the same resources.
The call was made by the Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dele Alake, at the Ministerial Forum on Critical Minerals, Value Chain and Beneficiation: Pathways for African Transformation, organised under the auspices of the AfDB in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire.
Alake also called for the establishment of a West African minerals processing corridor stretching from Lagos to Dakar and modelled on the Lobito Corridor in Central and Southern Africa.
This was contained in a statement issued on Sunday by the minister’s Special Assistant on Media, Lara Owoeye-Wise. The forum brought together more than 20 ministers responsible for mining, energy, industry, natural resources and the green economy, as well as representatives of development finance institutions, international banks and mining companies.
The gathering comes as countries across the world intensify competition for critical minerals needed for electric vehicles, renewable energy technologies, batteries, semiconductors and other industries driving the global energy transition.
For Africa, however, the growing demand for critical minerals presents both an opportunity and a long-standing challenge: the continent could either use its mineral wealth to industrialise or continue the pattern of exporting raw materials and importing finished products.
The statement read, “Determined to usher in a new lease of life for African economies, Nigeria and the African Development Bank have called for stronger African control over the continent’s vast mineral resources, advocating data sovereignty, regional collaboration and strategic financing as essential to ensuring that mineral-rich countries in Africa derive greater economic value from their natural assets.
“As one of Africa’s mineral-rich countries, Nigeria has increasingly positioned itself at the forefront of efforts to promote value addition, local processing and greater African ownership of the continent’s mineral development agenda.”
Speaking at the forum, the minister urged African countries to move beyond isolated national approaches and develop a coordinated strategy for controlling, processing and deriving greater value from the continent’s mineral wealth.
Alake, who is the pioneer chairman of the Africa Mineral Strategy Group, said Africa’s mineral resources could deliver far greater economic benefits if countries worked together to develop shared infrastructure, regional value chains and common standards.
“While the mantra of value addition has ushered in an era of economic independence for mineral-producing nations, we need concrete, actionable strategies to take charge and be in full control of our natural assets to ensure total economic freedom,” he said.
The minister said African countries needed to achieve sovereignty not only over their mineral resources but also over the data and technical systems used to assess the value of those resources.
He criticised the continent’s continued dependence on foreign reporting standards for mineral exploration and reserves, arguing that Africa must develop and adopt systems that reflect its own geological, environmental and economic realities.
“For the overall interest of the continent, and to efficiently and effectively safeguard its resources, Africa should take charge of the coding mechanisms utilised to assess its mineral assets,” Alake said.
He advocated the adoption of the Pan African Resource Reporting Code, a framework established by the Africa Minerals Development Centre for the public reporting of mineral and energy resources.
According to him, the system would promote transparency, consistency and ethical competency in the certification of mineral resources while taking into account the peculiar geological and environmental characteristics of African countries.
The call for greater control of mineral data is significant because reliable geological information is critical to determining the size, quality and commercial viability of mineral deposits.
Without accurate data, mineral-rich African countries are often placed at a disadvantage when negotiating with foreign investors, who may possess better information about the resources being developed.
He also called for the establishment of a West African minerals processing corridor stretching from Lagos to Dakar and modelled on the Lobito Corridor in Central and Southern Africa.
He said the corridor would enable countries in the region to specialise in processing particular minerals while sharing infrastructure, investment risks and the benefits of mineral development.
The proposed arrangement, he said, would reduce the enormous financial burden of developing separate processing facilities in every country and promote cross-border trade and industrial cooperation.
The minister said African countries needed to replace competition among themselves with strategic interdependence. He noted that the continent’s mineral resources are distributed across different countries, making regional cooperation essential for building commercially viable value chains.
The proposed Lagos-Dakar corridor is also in line with Nigeria’s broader ambition to position itself as a regional hub for mineral processing, industrial development and value addition.
The minister further drew attention to the low level of intra-African trade, saying the continent could not fully industrialise while its countries continued to trade more with external markets than with one another.
He noted that intra-African trade accounted for only about 16 per cent, compared with approximately 60 per cent among Asian countries and 70 per cent among European countries.
Earlier, the President of the African Development Bank, Sidi Ould Tah, highlighted what he described as the contradictions surrounding Africa’s mineral wealth.
Despite the continent’s vast landmass and enormous deposits of critical minerals, Africa has not secured a corresponding level of global economic influence or growth from its natural resources.
The AfDB president also pointed to the contradiction between abundant investment opportunities and inadequate financing, reflected in the relatively low levels of foreign direct investment flowing into the continent.
Both the AfDB and the Nigerian Government agreed that Africa must move beyond the traditional extraction and export of raw minerals. They said the continent needed to build processing capacity, develop local industries and create jobs around its mineral resources.
The forum subsequently adopted the Abidjan Declaration, which placed financing at the centre of efforts to transform Africa’s solid minerals sector.
Under the declaration, the AfDB pledged to deploy its financial instruments, capital-structuring and mobilisation capacity, as well as its technical expertise, to support mineral-producing countries and attract public and private investment into the sector.
The bank also committed to helping reduce the risks associated with strategic mining projects, financing critical infrastructure, supporting the development of bankable projects and accelerating the creation of competitive, inclusive and sustainable critical mineral value chains.
The declaration further urged mineral-producing countries to develop national and regional capacities capable of creating opportunities for project financing and generating sustainable local value and employment.
The push for greater African control over mineral resources comes as the global race for critical minerals intensifies.
Minerals such as lithium, cobalt, nickel, graphite, manganese and rare earth elements have become increasingly important in the production of batteries, electric vehicles, renewable energy systems and other technologies associated with the global energy transition.
Africa possesses significant deposits of several of these minerals, yet much of the continent’s mineral production is still exported with limited local processing. The result has been a persistent mismatch between the value of the resources extracted from Africa and the economic benefits retained by African countries.
Nigeria, which has traditionally depended heavily on crude oil revenues, has been seeking to diversify its economy through the development of its solid minerals sector.
The Federal Government has increasingly promoted geological exploration, local processing and value addition as part of efforts to reduce the country’s dependence on crude oil and attract investment into mining and mineral processing.
The Abidjan forum therefore provided an opportunity for Nigeria to advance a broader continental agenda: that Africa must not simply become a supplier of the minerals required for the world’s green transition but must also become a major producer of the products and technologies built from those minerals.
At the end of the deliberations, participants reaffirmed that stronger African cooperation, greater control of mineral data, integrated regional infrastructure, local value addition and strategic financing were essential to ensuring that the continent’s mineral wealth translated into broad-based and sustainable economic transformation.
For Nigeria, the outcome further strengthens its emerging role in the campaign for a new African minerals architecture, one in which African countries have greater control over their resources, data, processing capacity and the economic value generated from the minerals beneath their soil.
Damilola Aina is a journalist at Punch Newspapers with over five years of experience covering energy, business, investment, infrastructure, and property sectors. He specializes in producing well-researched and insightful reports that inform readers and provide clarity on complex topics. Damilola’s work demonstrates practical newsroom experience, editorial insight, and a strong commitment to accurate and engaging journalism.
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