UNGA81: Tinubu Demands Fresh Push to End Exploitation of Africa’s Mineral Wealth

President Bola Tinubu has called for a fresh continental push to end the exploitation of Africa’s critical mineral resources, urging African countries to move beyond the export of raw materials and prioritise local processing and value addition.

Tinubu, represented by Vice-President Kashim Shettima, made the call at the third Africa Minerals Strategy Group (AMSG) High-Level Roundtable on Critical Minerals Development in Africa, held on the sidelines of the ongoing 81st Session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York.

The roundtable, convened and chaired by Tinubu alongside the Chairman of AMSG and Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dr Dele Alake, was held under the theme, “From Resources to Wealth: Continental Cooperation for Mineral Value Addition, Data Sovereignty, Innovative Financing and Critical Minerals Security.”

Tinubu urged African nations to unite against the continued export of raw minerals and build an integrated continental system that would transform Africa from a supplier of raw materials into a hub for processing, manufacturing and value addition.

He said Africa could not continue to possess enormous mineral wealth while its people and mineral-producing communities remained deprived of jobs, infrastructure and meaningful economic benefits.

“For generations, Africa has furnished the materials of prosperity elsewhere. Our duty is to ensure that the future being fashioned from African minerals has room for African ambition,” he said.

The President noted that growing global demand for critical minerals, driven by clean energy, artificial intelligence and advanced manufacturing, had made Africa’s mineral resources increasingly important to global supply chains and economic security.

He said the continent’s response should include processing and refining facilities, battery and component manufacturing, African technologies, skills development and greater participation of local enterprises.

According to him, the value of mining should ultimately be measured by its impact on the lives of Africans through job creation, industrialisation, infrastructure development, technology transfer and wealth retained across generations.

Tinubu, however, warned that no African country could achieve these objectives in isolation, stressing that competition among countries through lower royalties, weaker local-content requirements and excessive concessions would undermine the continent’s bargaining power.

“Fragmentation leaves us exporting raw materials and buying finished goods at a premium. Cooperation gives our markets scale, our industries integration, our financing reach and our negotiations authority,” he said.

He said Nigeria was strengthening its mining sector by requiring local value addition for new mining licences, improving geological data and investor access, organising artisanal miners into cooperatives, tackling illegal mining and strengthening regulatory accountability.

Tinubu said the reforms had contributed to increased revenue from the mining sector, which he put at approximately N6 billion in 2023, over N38 billion in 2024 and between N68.1 billion and N70 billion in 2025. He also cited major foreign investment commitments and the development of large-scale lithium processing capacity in Nasarawa State as evidence of the sector’s potential.

He urged AMSG member countries to speak with one voice in negotiations with international partners, insisting that partnerships must be based on mutual benefit, shared responsibility, sovereign equality and respect for Africa’s priorities.

On the Continental Integration and Economic Assurance Declaration adopted at the roundtable, Tinubu said the framework should provide a predictable, investment-ready environment for Africa’s Strategic Mineral Corridors.

He stressed that the declaration must go beyond a signing ceremony and be backed by clear timelines, financing arrangements, implementation mechanisms and public accountability.

Earlier, Alake said the proposed Continental Integration and Economic Assurance Declaration was designed to establish a unified framework for Africa’s critical and solid mineral value chains.

He urged African countries yet to join the AMSG to do so, arguing that greater cooperation would help pool the ideas, resources and expertise needed to develop the continent’s mineral sector.

Kenya’s Minister of Blue Economy and Maritime Affairs, Hassan Ali-Joho, also stressed the importance of domestic resource mobilisation, transparency, competitiveness and greater alignment of licensing procedures in driving sustainable solid mineral development across Africa.