Nigeria, AfDB Call For African Control Of Critical Minerals

Nigeria and the African Development Bank (AfDB) have called for greater African ownership and control of the continent’s vast mineral resources.

They have urged mineral-producing countries to prioritise local value addition, regional cooperation and strategic financing to maximise the economic benefits of Africa’s natural wealth.

According to a statement by the minister’s special assistant on media, Lara Owo-eye Wise on Sunday, the call was made at the Ministerial Forum on Critical Minerals, Value Chain and Beneficiation: Pathways for African Transformation, held under the auspices of the African Development Bank in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire.

Addressing ministers from Africa’s mineral-producing countries, Nigeria’s Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dr Dele Alake, urged African governments to embrace regional integration rather than pursue isolated national strategies in developing their mineral resources.

He said Africa’s abundant mineral deposits could drive industrialisation and economic transformation if countries collaborated on processing, financing and infrastructure.

“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 noted that Nigeria had consistently championed local processing and value addition as part of efforts to reposition Africa in the global critical minerals value chain.
Alake, who chairs the Africa Mineral Strategy Group (AMSG), said member countries had continued to advance a common continental approach aimed at ensuring African nations derive greater value from their mineral resources.

He also called for Africa to take control of the systems used to evaluate and report its mineral assets, arguing that continued reliance on the Australia-based Joint Ore Reserves Committee (JORC) reporting code no longer reflected the continent’s aspirations.

“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.

The minister advocated the adoption of the Pan African Resource Reporting Code (PARC), developed by the Africa Minerals Development Centre (AMDC), describing it as a framework tailored to Africa’s geological realities while promoting transparency, consistency and ethical reporting standards.

Alake also proposed the establishment of a West African minerals processing corridor stretching from Lagos to Dakar, modelled after the Lobito Corridor, to enable countries to specialise in processing different minerals while sharing infrastructure costs and investment risks.

According to him, such regional collaboration would reduce the financial burden on individual countries, facilitate trade and accelerate industrial development across West Africa.

He further expressed concern over the low level of intra-African trade, which he said stands at about 16 per cent, compared with approximately 60 per cent in Asia and 70 per cent in Europe.
Earlier, President of the African Development Bank, Dr Sidi Ould Tah, had said Africa’s enormous mineral wealth had yet to translate into meaningful economic prosperity.

He lamented that despite possessing significant deposits of critical minerals, the continent continued to record limited contributions from the sector to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and attracted insufficient foreign direct investment.

According to him, Africa must move beyond exporting raw minerals and focus on building value chains capable of generating jobs, industrial growth and sustainable economic development.
The forum adopted the Abidjan Declaration, which commits African countries to pursuing coordinated policies on critical minerals, regional value-chain development and integrated infrastructure.

Under the declaration, the AfDB pledged to deploy its financing instruments, technical expertise and capital mobilisation capacity to support strategic mineral projects across the continent.

The declaration also committed to reducing investment risks, financing critical infrastructure, supporting bankable projects and promoting competitive and sustainable mineral value chains capable of creating jobs and expanding local industrial capacity.

For Nigeria, the outcome of the meeting reinforces its campaign for greater African control of mineral resources through data sovereignty, domestic processing, regional cooperation and increased investment in mineral beneficiation.

The statement noted that the forum was attended by more than 20 African ministers responsible for mining, energy, industry and natural resources, alongside representatives of the African Development Bank, African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank), the US Export-Import Bank and international mining companies.