NEW YORK – President Bola Tinubu has called for a renewed continental alliance to end the exploitation of Africa’s critical mineral resources, urging African countries to stop exporting raw materials and move decisively towards local processing, manufacturing and value addition.
Tinubu, represented by Vice-President Kashim Shettima, made the call in New York on Monday at the 3rd Africa Minerals Strategy Group (AMSG) High-Level Roundtable on Critical Minerals Development in Africa, held on the sidelines of the ongoing 81st Session of the United Nations General Assembly.
The roundtable, convened and chaired by President Tinubu alongside the Chairman of the AMSG and Nigeria’s Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dr Dele Alake, had as its theme: “From Resources to Wealth: Continental Cooperation for Mineral Value Addition, Data Sovereignty, Innovative Financing and Critical Minerals Security.”
The gathering focused on strategies for transforming Africa’s vast mineral resources into sustainable economic growth, industrial development, jobs and shared prosperity.
Tinubu challenged African leaders and stakeholders to unite against a system in which the continent exports raw minerals only to import finished products at premium prices.
“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 declared.
The President said Africa could not claim to be wealthy while its mineral-rich communities remained without adequate infrastructure, jobs and meaningful participation in the wealth generated from their natural resources.
He noted that the urgency had increased with rising global demand for critical minerals driven by clean energy, artificial intelligence and advanced manufacturing, stressing that Africa must seize the opportunity to build industries and retain greater value from its resources.
According to him, the answer to the continent’s mineral paradox “must be processing, refining, batteries, components, African technologies and competitive skills.”
“The worth of a mine must be counted in the lives it improves.
“Jobs, industries, infrastructure, technology transfer, African enterprise participation and prosperity retained across generations must measure our progress from resources to wealth,” he said.
Tinubu warned that no African country could achieve the desired transformation in isolation, arguing that competition among countries through lower royalties, weaker local-content requirements and excessive concessions would undermine the continent’s collective bargaining 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.
Highlighting Nigeria’s ongoing mining reforms, the President said the country now required local value addition for new mining licences, while strengthening geological data and investor access, organising artisanal miners into cooperatives, combating illegal mining and improving regulatory accountability.
He disclosed that government revenue from the mining sector had risen from approximately N6 billion in 2023 to over N38 billion in 2024, and to between N68.1 billion and N70 billion in 2025.
Tinubu also pointed to major foreign investment commitments and the development and commissioning of large-scale lithium processing capacity in Nasarawa State as evidence of the possibilities presented by the reforms.
He said the policy direction of his administration was clear: minerals extracted in Nigeria must contribute to Nigerian industries, workers, skills and communities.
The President maintained that the reforms had demonstrated that “firm terms can attract serious capital,” while calling for partnerships based on mutual benefit, shared responsibility, sovereign equality and respect for African priorities.
He urged African countries to speak with one voice in negotiating market access, industrial investment and technology partnerships that would strengthen indigenous capabilities.
Tinubu also called for the effective implementation of the Continental Integration and Economic Assurance Declaration (CIEAD) adopted and signed at the roundtable, stressing that the declaration must go beyond a ceremonial commitment.
He said it should establish a predictable and investment-ready environment for Africa’s Strategic Mineral Corridors and be backed by a binding programme with clear timelines, financing arrangements, implementation mechanisms and public accountability.
The President urged member countries of the AMSG to define their national and regional contributions, while calling on development finance institutions and sovereign investors to develop financing platforms capable of supporting the continent’s mineral ambitions.
“Africa’s power resides in its people, markets and ingenuity. No outsider will organise our continent or place our industrial interests above their own,” Tinubu declared.
“We must integrate our markets, mobilise African capital and negotiate with one voice wherever our interests converge.
“Our industrial growth can strengthen global prosperity, the energy transition and secure supply chains.
“Minerals confer no automatic prosperity; vision, investment and industry must earn it. Political will must turn mineral promise into enduring African wealth.”
Earlier, Alake said the AMSG was proposing the Continental Integration and Economic Assurance Declaration as a landmark framework for establishing a unified architecture for Africa’s critical and solid minerals value chains.
He said the strength of the gathering reflected the progress recorded in Africa’s solid minerals sector and the growth of the AMSG.
Alake urged African countries yet to join the group to do so, stressing that greater membership would strengthen synergy in the mobilisation of ideas, resources and collective action required to harness the continent’s natural wealth.
He maintained that Africa’s mineral ambitions could not be realised through policy implementation alone, but required integrated partnerships spanning financial transactions, infrastructure development and industrial production.
Also speaking, Kenya’s Minister of Blue Economy and Maritime Affairs, Hassan Ali-Joho, underscored the importance of domestic resource mobilisation as a catalyst for solid mineral development in Africa.
He said holistic transformation would require AMSG members to remain transparent and competitive while working towards greater alignment of licensing procedures across the continent.
