President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has called for stronger cooperation among African countries to end the exploitation of the continent’s critical mineral resources and promote local processing.
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 on the sidelines of the 81st Session of the United Nations General Assembly.
The roundtable, convened and chaired by Tinubu alongside AMSG Chairman and Nigeria’s Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dr Dele Alake, had the theme, “From Resources to Wealth: Continental Cooperation for Mineral Value Addition, Data Sovereignty, Innovative Financing and Critical Minerals Security.”
Tinubu urged African nations to unite and halt the export of raw materials, calling for an alliance that would enable the continent to move from being a supplier of raw minerals to a hub for local processing, manufacturing and value addition.
He told African leaders and other stakeholders that the continent could not claim to be wealthy while its people remained in poverty despite its mineral 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.
Tinubu said mineral-rich communities lacked infrastructure, jobs and a stake in their own wealth at a time when global demand for clean energy, artificial intelligence, AI, and advanced manufacturing was making Africa’s critical minerals important to global supply chains and economic security.
He said the response should include processing, refining, battery and component production, 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 should measure progress from resources to wealth.
Tinubu warned that no African country could achieve the objective alone, saying competition through lower royalties, weaker local content and excessive concessions would weaken 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.
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.
Tinubu said revenue rose from approximately N6 billion in 2023 to more than N38 billion in 2024, and between N68.1 billion and N70 billion in 2025.
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He also cited major foreign investment commitments and large-scale lithium processing capacity developed and commissioned in Nasarawa State as indications of the possibilities in the sector.
The President said his administration’s mining policy direction required minerals extracted in Nigeria to sustain Nigerian industries, workers, skills and communities.
He said the ongoing reforms indicated that “firm terms can attract serious capital.”
Tinubu called for reliable partnerships based on mutual benefit, shared responsibility, sovereign equality and respect for African priorities, alongside fair market access, industrial investment and technology partnerships that build African capabilities.
He urged AMSG member countries to speak with one voice in promoting Africa’s collective interests.
On the Continental Integration and Economic Assurance Declaration adopted and signed at the roundtable, Tinubu said it must establish a predictable and investment-ready environment for Africa’s Strategic Mineral Corridors.
He said the declaration’s authority must extend beyond the signing ceremony through a binding programme with timelines, financing, implementation and public accountability.
He urged African nations to specify national and regional contributions, while development finance institutions and sovereign investors should propose financing platforms.
Tinubu said Africa’s mineral wealth could support global prosperity, the energy transition and secure supply chains, but stressed that minerals alone could not guarantee prosperity without vision, investment and industry.
Earlier, Alake said the group was proposing the Continental Integration and Economic Assurance Declaration, as a continental framework for establishing a unified architecture for Africa’s critical and solid minerals value chains.
He said the gathering reflected the progress made in Africa’s solid minerals sector through the growth of AMSG.
Alake urged African countries that had yet to join the group to do so to promote synergy in efforts, ideas and resources needed to develop the continent’s natural resources.
He said Africa’s mineral ambitions could not be achieved through policy implementation alone, stressing the need for integrated partnerships across financial transactions and infrastructure development.
Kenya’s Minister of Blue Economy and Maritime Affairs, Hassan Ali-Joho, also underscored the importance of domestic resource mobilisation as a catalyst for solid mineral development in Africa.
He said AMSG members needed to remain transparent and competitive while working towards greater alignment of licensing procedures.
NAN
