In a powerful address at the African Minerals Strategy Group (AMSG) meeting, held alongside the 79th United Nations General Assembly, President Bola Tinubu, has laid out a transformative vision for Africa’s mineral wealth.
Tinubu’s message was clear: Africa must break free from the shackles of a flawed global trade system that has long kept the continent in economic chains.
Africa holds the lion’s share of the world’s platinum, cobalt, and manganese reserves. Yet, these invaluable resources are often exported as raw materials, only to return as costly finished products. This cycle, Tinubu argued, has left Africa at the mercy of foreign markets, perpetuating poverty and underdevelopment.
Highlighting Nigeria’s vast mineral resources and a burgeoning population of over 226 million, Tinubu who was represented by Vice President Kashim Shettima, lamented the country’s failure to fully capitalize on its wealth.
He noted that the extraction of raw minerals without local processing deepens Africa’s economic challenges, calling for a paradigm shift towards local value addition.
With the race for new battery technologies, particularly lithium-ion batteries intensifying global interest in Africa’s critical minerals, Tinubu emphasized that the world needs Africa’s resources more than ever, noting that the continent holds 92% of the world’s platinum, 56% of its cobalt, and 54% of its manganese—key components for electric vehicles and portable electronics.
Tinubu reaffirmed his administration’s commitment to adding local value to Nigeria’s mineral sector, positioning the country as a key player in the global mineral value chain.
Al, so at the occasion, Nigeria’s Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dr Dele Alake, echoed President Tinubu’s sentiments as he criticized the longstanding model of raw material exportation.
Alake urged African leaders to prioritize local value addition as a condition for granting mining licenses, framing it as both an economic imperative and a pathway to independence from exploitative trade patterns.
