Nigeria and the African Development Bank (AfDB) have called for a fundamental shift in Africa’s mining industry, urging mineral-rich countries to process more of their resources locally, strengthen regional cooperation and take greater control of mineral data to unlock the full economic value of the continent’s vast deposits.
The call was made at the Ministerial Forum on Critical Minerals, Value Chain and Beneficiation: Pathways for African Transformation, organised by the AfDB in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire.
Speaking at the forum, the Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dele Alake, urged African nations to abandon isolated approaches to mineral development and embrace regional partnerships capable of transforming the continent from a supplier of raw materials into a global hub for mineral processing and value addition.
He said Africa’s enormous reserves of critical minerals would generate far greater economic benefits if countries collaborated on processing, financing and infrastructure rather than competing individually.
“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,” Alake said.
The minister, who chairs the Africa Mineral Strategy Group (AMSG), said the continent must also assert sovereignty over the systems used to assess and report its mineral resources.
He argued that Africa should move away from its longstanding dependence on the Australia-based Joint Ore Reserves Committee (JORC) reporting system and adopt the Pan African Resource Reporting Code (PARC), developed by the Africa Minerals Development Centre.
According to Alake, the African framework is better suited to the continent’s geological realities and would promote transparency, consistency and ethical standards in the reporting of mineral and energy resources.
The minister also proposed the establishment of a West African minerals processing corridor stretching from Lagos to Dakar, modelled after the Lobito Corridor. Under the arrangement, participating countries would specialise in processing different minerals based on their comparative advantages, enabling them to share infrastructure costs, reduce investment risks and deepen intra-African trade.
He noted that trade within Africa remains low, accounting for only about 16 per cent of total trade on the continent, compared with roughly 60 per cent in Asia and 70 per cent in Europe.
Earlier, AfDB President Dr Sidi Ould Tah lamented that Africa’s abundant mineral resources had not translated into corresponding economic prosperity.
He described it as a paradox that the continent possesses vast deposits of critical minerals yet contributes relatively little to global economic output, while also attracting inadequate levels of foreign direct investment needed to develop the sector.
Tah stressed that Africa must move beyond exporting raw minerals and instead build competitive value chains capable of creating jobs, attracting investment and boosting industrialisation.
The forum ended with the adoption of the Abidjan Declaration, which places financing at the centre of efforts to transform Africa’s mining industry.
Under the declaration, the AfDB committed to deploying its financial instruments, technical expertise and capital mobilisation capacity to support strategic mining projects, de-risk investments, finance critical infrastructure and accelerate the development of competitive and sustainable mineral value chains across the continent.
The declaration also urged African governments to strengthen national and regional capacity for project development, improve access to financing and create more employment through local value addition.
The meeting brought together more than 20 African ministers responsible for mining, energy, industry and natural resources, alongside representatives of the AfDB, African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank), the US Export-Import Bank and mining companies from Germany, Canada and the United States.
The outcome reinforces Nigeria’s growing role in shaping a new continental minerals agenda centred on local processing, strategic financing, regional integration and greater African ownership of the continent’s critical mineral resources.
