President Bola Tinubu has called on African countries to unite and end the export of raw minerals, urging the continent to become a hub for local processing, manufacturing and value addition.
Tinubu made the call on Monday in New York, United States, at the AMSG High-Level Roundtable on Critical Minerals Development in Africa, held on the sidelines of the 81st Session of the United Nations General Assembly.
In an address delivered by Vice President Kashim Shettima, Tinubu said Africa could not claim to be wealthy while its people remained poor despite the continent’s 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.
He said the growing global demand for clean energy, artificial intelligence and advanced manufacturing had made minerals such as cobalt, copper, lithium and rare earth elements increasingly important to global supply chains.
According to him, Africa’s response must include processing, refining, battery production, manufacturing, technology transfer, job creation and greater participation of African businesses.
Tinubu warned that no African country could achieve the desired transformation alone, saying competition through lower royalties, weak local content requirements and excessive concessions would weaken the continent’s bargaining power.
He said Nigeria was strengthening its mining sector by requiring local value addition for new mining licences, improving geological data, organising artisanal miners into cooperatives and tackling illegal mining.
The President said revenue from the mining sector rose from about ₦6 billion in 2023 to over ₦38 billion in 2024 and between ₦68.1 billion and ₦70 billion in 2025. He also cited foreign investment commitments and lithium processing capacity developed in Nasarawa State as evidence of the sector’s potential.
Earlier, Chairman of the Africa Minerals Strategy Group (AMSG) and Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dele Alake, said the group was proposing a Continental Integration and Economic Assurance Declaration as a framework for creating a unified architecture for Africa’s critical and solid minerals value chains.
Alake urged African countries yet to join the AMSG to do so, stressing that the continent’s mineral ambitions required stronger cooperation in financing, infrastructure and policy implementation.
Kenya’s Minister of Blue Economy and Maritime Affairs, Hassan Ali Joho, also called for greater domestic resource mobilisation, transparency and alignment of licensing procedures while respecting the sovereignty of member states. Representatives from Liberia, Chad, Tanzania and other stakeholders also contributed to the discussions.
