The Federal Government and the African Development Bank have called for stronger African control over the continent’s vast mineral resources, saying Africa must stop allowing its natural wealth to leave its shores in raw form while importing finished products made from the same resources.
The call was made by the Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dele Alake, at the Ministerial Forum on Critical Minerals, Value Chain and Beneficiation: Pathways for African Transformation, organised under the auspices of the AfDB in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire.
Alake also called for the establishment of a West African minerals processing corridor stretching from Lagos to Dakar and modelled on the Lobito Corridor in Central and Southern Africa.
This was contained in a statement issued on Sunday by the minister’s Special Assistant on Media, Lara Owoeye-Wise. The forum brought together more than 20 ministers responsible for mining, energy, industry, natural resources and the green economy, as well as representatives of development finance institutions, international banks and mining companies.
The gathering comes as countries across the world intensify competition for critical minerals needed for electric vehicles, renewable energy technologies, batteries, semiconductors and other industries driving the global energy transition.
For Africa, however, the growing demand for critical minerals presents both an opportunity and a long-standing challenge: the continent could either use its mineral wealth to industrialise or continue the pattern of exporting raw materials and importing finished products.The statement read, “Determined to usher in a new lease of life for African economies, Nigeria and the African Development Bank have called for stronger African control over the continent’s vast mineral resources, advocating data sovereignty, regional collaboration and strategic financing as essential to ensuring that mineral-rich countries in Africa derive greater economic value from their natural assets
As one of Africa’s mineral-rich countries, Nigeria has increasingly positioned itself at the forefront of efforts to promote value addition, local processing and greater African ownership of the continent’s mineral development agenda.”
Speaking at the forum, the minister urged African countries to move beyond isolated national approaches and develop a coordinated strategy for controlling, processing and deriving greater value from the continent’s mineral wealth.
Alake, who is the pioneer chairman of the Africa Mineral Strategy Group, said Africa’s mineral resources could deliver far greater economic benefits if countries worked together to develop shared infrastructure, regional value chains and common standards.