Nigeria, AfDB Push African Control of Mineral Wealth, Local Value Addition

Folalumi Alaran in Abuja Nigeria and the African Development Bank (AfDB) have renewed calls for African countries to take greater control of the continent’s vast mineral resources through local value addition, regional cooperation, strategic financing and ownership of mineral data to ensure that Africa derives greater economic benefits from its natural wealth. The call was made at the Ministerial Forum on Critical Minerals, Value Chain and Beneficiation: Pathways for African Transformation, held under the auspices of the AfDB in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, where Nigeria’s Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dr. Dele Alake, urged African mineral-producing nations to abandon isolated national approaches and embrace regional collaboration to unlock the full economic potential of the continent’s mineral resources. Alake said Africa’s vast mineral endowment would generate significantly greater returns if countries adopted a coordinated strategy built on interdependence, value addition and shared infrastructure. He stressed that while the campaign for local beneficiation had opened new opportunities for economic independence, African nations must now develop practical strategies that would enable them to take full control of their mineral assets. “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,” the minister said. Alake, who chairs the Africa Mineral Strategy Group (AMSG), also called for Africa to achieve sovereignty over the technical systems used to evaluate its mineral resources, describing the continent’s continued reliance on the Australia-based Joint Ore Reserves Committee (JORC) reporting standard as outdated. He advocated the adoption of the Pan African Resource Reporting Code (PARC), developed by the Africa Minerals Development Centre (AMDC), saying the framework would promote transparency, consistency and ethical reporting while reflecting Africa’s unique geological and environmental realities. The minister also proposed the establishment of a West African minerals processing hub stretching from Lagos to Dakar, modelled after the Lobito Corridor, where participating countries would leverage their comparative advantages to process specific minerals. According to him, such a regional corridor would reduce investment costs, facilitate cross-border trade, lower financial risks and allow participating countries to share the benefits of mineral development. Alake further expressed concern over the continent’s weak trade integration, noting that intra-African trade accounts for only about 16 per cent compared to approximately 60 per cent in Asia and 70 per cent in Europe. Speaking at the forum, President of the African Development Bank, Dr. Sidi Ould Tah, said Africa continues to face the paradox of possessing enormous mineral wealth without corresponding economic gains. He observed that despite the continent’s abundant deposits of critical minerals, these resources have yet to translate into significant contributions to Gross Domestic Product (GDP), while inadequate Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) remains a major constraint. The forum resolved that African countries should pursue coordinated policies on critical minerals, regional infrastructure development, value-chain expansion and capital mobilisation to transform the sector. The commitments were captured in the Abidjan Declaration, under which the African Development Bank pledged to deploy its financing instruments, technical expertise and capital mobilisation capacity to support mineral-producing countries, de-risk strategic projects and attract greater public and private investment into Africa’s mining industry. The declaration also committed to financing critical infrastructure, supporting bankable projects and accelerating the development of competitive, inclusive and sustainable mineral value chains, while urging African countries to strengthen national and regional capacities capable of generating quality jobs and long-term local value. More than 20 African ministers responsible for mining, energy, industry, natural resources and the green economy attended the forum alongside representatives of the African Development Bank, African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank), the US Export-Import Bank and mining companies from Germany, Canada and the United States. At the end of the meeting, participants reaffirmed that stronger regional cooperation, local value addition, strategic financing and African control of mineral resources remain critical to achieving sustainable economic transformation across the continent.