President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has called for a continental alliance to end Africa's dependence on exporting raw minerals. He made the call in New York, United States, while declaring open the third Africa Minerals Strategy Group (AMSG) High-Level Roundtable on Critical Minerals Development in Africa. Tinubu emphasized the need for African countries to prioritize local processing, manufacturing, and value addition to retain more wealth from their natural resources.
The roundtable, chaired by Tinubu alongside Vice President Kashim Shettima and the AMSG Chairman and Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dr. Dele Alake, was themed "From Resources to Wealth: Continental Cooperation for Mineral Value Addition, Data Sovereignty, Innovative Financing and Critical Minerals Security." Tinubu stated that Africa must move beyond its traditional role as a supplier of raw materials and develop integrated mineral value chains capable of creating jobs, industries, technology, and wealth on the continent.
Tinubu identified cobalt, copper, lithium, and rare earth elements as increasingly important to global supply chains due to growing demand from clean energy, artificial intelligence, and advanced manufacturing. He stressed that Africa's response should include processing, refining, battery production, component manufacturing, African technologies, and the development of competitive skills. The President emphasized that the worth of a mine must be counted in the lives it improves, with jobs, industries, infrastructure, technology transfer, African enterprise participation, and prosperity retained across generations used to measure progress.
Tinubu warned that African countries would weaken their collective bargaining position if they competed against one another through lower royalties, weaker local-content requirements, and excessive concessions. He stated that fragmentation would lead to exporting raw materials and buying finished goods at a premium, while cooperation would give markets scale, industries integration, financing reach, and negotiations authority. The President also highlighted Nigeria's mining sector reforms, which require local value addition for new mining licenses, strengthen geological data and investor access, and combat illegal mining.
According to Tinubu, government revenue from Nigeria's mining sector rose from about N6 billion in 2023 to more than N38 billion in 2024 and between N68.1 billion and N70 billion in 2025. He cited major foreign investment commitments and the development and commissioning of large-scale lithium processing capacity in Nasarawa State as evidence of the sector's potential. Tinubu stated that Nigeria's mining policy direction is designed to ensure that minerals extracted in the country support Nigerian industries, workers, skills, and host communities.
Tinubu called for partnerships based on mutual benefit, shared responsibility, sovereign equality, and respect for national priorities. He urged AMSG member countries to speak with one voice in advancing Africa's collective interests, stressing that cooperation should not translate into dependency. The President also called for the implementation of the Continental Integration and Economic Assurance Declaration (CIEAD), adopted at the roundtable, to provide a predictable investment environment for Africa's Strategic Mineral Corridors.
Dr. Dele Alake stated that the proposed CIEAD was designed to establish a unified framework for Africa's critical and solid minerals value chains. He urged African countries that had yet to join the AMSG to become members, saying greater cooperation would strengthen efforts to mobilize ideas, resources, and partnerships required to develop the continent's mineral sector. Other stakeholders, including Kenya's Minister of Blue Economy and Maritime Affairs, Hassan Ali Joho, and representatives of Liberia, Chad, and Tanzania, contributed to the discussions.
Key points
- - President Tinubu calls for a continental alliance to end Africa's dependence on exporting raw minerals. - The alliance aims to prioritize local processing, manufacturing, and value addition to retain more wealth from natural resources. - Nigeria's mining sector has shown significant growth, with government revenue increasing from N6 billion in 2023 to over N70 billion in 2025.
