The Federal Government and the African Development Bank (AfDB) have called for stronger African control over the continent’s vast mineral resources, urging African countries to stop exporting raw minerals and importing finished products made from the same resources.
The call was made by the Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dele Alake, during the Ministerial Forum on Critical Minerals, Value Chain and Beneficiation: Pathways for African Transformation, organised by the African Development Bank in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire.
Alake also proposed the establishment of a West African minerals processing corridor stretching from Lagos to Dakar, modelled after the Lobito Corridor in Central and Southern Africa, to unlock Africa’s mineral wealth through regional cooperation and value addition.
The development 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, alongside representatives of development finance institutions, international banks and mining companies.
Speaking at the forum, Alake urged African countries to move beyond isolated national approaches and adopt a coordinated strategy for controlling, processing and deriving greater value from the continent’s mineral resources.
As the pioneer Chairman of the Africa Mineral Strategy Group, he said Africa’s mineral wealth could deliver far greater economic benefits if countries collaborated to develop shared infrastructure, regional value chains and common standards.
“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 stressed that Africa must achieve sovereignty not only over its mineral resources but also over the data and technical systems used to assess their value.
He criticised the continent’s continued dependence on foreign reporting standards for mineral exploration and reserves, arguing that Africa should develop and adopt systems that reflect its own geological, environmental and economic realities.
“For the overall interest of the continent, and to efficiently and effectively safeguard its resources, Africa should take charge of the coding mechanisms utilised to assess its mineral assets,” he said.
Alake advocated the adoption of the Pan-African Resource Reporting Code, developed by the Africa Minerals Development Centre, describing it as a framework that would promote transparency, consistency and ethical competence in the certification of Africa’s mineral and energy resources.
He further explained that the proposed Lagos-Dakar minerals processing corridor would enable countries in the region to specialise in processing different minerals while sharing infrastructure, investment risks and the benefits of mineral development.
According to him, the initiative would reduce the enormous financial burden of establishing separate processing facilities in every country while promoting cross-border trade, industrial cooperation and regional economic integration.
Alake said African countries must replace competition with strategic interdependence, noting that the continent’s mineral deposits are spread across different nations, making regional collaboration essential for building commercially viable mineral value chains.
He added that the proposed corridor aligns with Nigeria’s ambition to become a regional hub for mineral processing, industrial development and value addition.
The minister also expressed concern over Africa’s low level of intra-African trade, noting that the continent cannot achieve meaningful industrialisation while trading more with external markets than with one another.
According to him, intra-African trade accounts for only about 16 per cent, compared with approximately 60 per cent among Asian countries and 70 per cent among European countries.
Earlier, President of the African Development Bank, Sidi Ould Tah, highlighted the contradictions surrounding Africa’s abundant mineral wealth, noting that despite vast investment opportunities, the continent continues to attract relatively low levels of foreign direct investment.
Both the Federal Government and the AfDB agreed that Africa must move beyond the traditional extraction and export of raw minerals by building processing capacity, developing local industries and creating jobs across the mineral value chain.
The forum subsequently adopted the Abidjan Declaration, which placed financing at the centre of efforts to transform Africa’s solid minerals sector.
Under the declaration, the African Development Bank pledged to deploy its financial instruments, capital mobilisation capacity and technical expertise to support mineral-producing countries, reduce investment risks, finance critical infrastructure, develop bankable projects and accelerate competitive, inclusive and sustainable critical mineral value chains.
The declaration also urged African countries to strengthen national and regional capacities capable of attracting project financing while generating sustainable local value, industrial growth and employment opportunities across the continent.
