President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has called on African countries to form an aggressive alliance to protect the continent’s mineral wealth and end the export of raw minerals without local processing and value addition.
Tinubu said Africa must move from being a supplier of raw materials to becoming a major centre for mineral processing, manufacturing, technology and industrial development.
The President made the call on Monday in New York, United States, at the Africa Minerals Strategy Group (AMSG) High-Level Roundtable on Critical Minerals Development in Africa, held on the sidelines of the 81st Session of the United Nations General Assembly.
The roundtable, chaired by Tinubu, was attended by Vice President Kashim Shettima, AMSG Chairman and Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dele Alake, and representatives of other African countries and stakeholders.
The dialogue focused on continental cooperation in mineral value addition, data sovereignty, innovative financing and critical minerals security.
In an address delivered by Shettima, Tinubu said Africa could no longer afford a situation where its mineral resources enrich other parts of the world while communities where the resources are extracted remain poor.
“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 noted that rising 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.
He said the response should be increased investment in processing, refining, battery production, components, African technologies and skills development.
“The worth of a mine must be counted in the lives it improves,” the President said, adding that jobs, industries, infrastructure, technology transfer and African participation in mineral enterprises should form part of the measurement of progress.
Tinubu warned that African countries could weaken their bargaining position if they competed against one another by offering lower royalties, weaker local-content requirements and excessive concessions to investors.
“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.
On Nigeria’s mining sector, the President said his administration was pushing for local value addition as a condition for new mining licences, stronger geological data, improved access for investors, the formalisation of artisanal miners into cooperatives and tougher action against illegal mining.
Tinubu said government revenue from the mining sector had risen from about N6 billion in 2023 to more than N38 billion in 2024 and between N68.1 billion and N70 billion in 2025.
He also cited foreign investment commitments and the development and commissioning of large-scale lithium processing capacity in Nasarawa State as indications of the sector’s potential.
The President said Nigeria’s mining policy was designed to ensure that minerals extracted in the country contribute to Nigerian industries, jobs, skills development and host communities.
He urged other African countries to adapt lessons from Nigeria’s experience while pursuing partnerships based on mutual benefit, sovereign equality, fair market access, industrial investment and technology transfer.
Tinubu further called on AMSG member states to speak with one voice in advancing the continent’s collective interests.
“Africa’s power resides in its people, markets and ingenuity. No outsider will organise our continent or place our industrial interests above their own,” he said.
He also called for the implementation of the Continental Integration and Economic Assurance Declaration adopted at the roundtable, saying it should provide a predictable investment environment for Africa’s strategic mineral corridors.
The President said the declaration must be backed by clear timelines, financing arrangements, implementation mechanisms and public accountability.
Earlier, Alake said the proposed Continental Integration and Economic Assurance Declaration was designed to provide a unified framework for Africa’s critical and solid minerals value chains.
He urged African countries yet to join the AMSG to become members, stressing that the continent needed greater coordination of its resources, policies and investment strategies.
Kenya’s Minister of Blue Economy and Maritime Affairs, Hassan Ali Joho, also stressed the importance of domestic resource mobilisation, transparency and greater alignment of licensing procedures in developing Africa’s mineral sector.
Representatives from Liberia, Chad and Tanzania, among other stakeholders, also contributed to the discussions.
