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 critical mineral resources, urging countries to prioritise local value addition, regional cooperation and strategic financing to unlock the full economic potential of the sector.

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.

According to a statement issued by the Special Assistant on Media to the Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Lara Owo-eye Wise, Nigeria’s Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dr. Dele Alake, urged African governments to pursue regional integration rather than isolated national approaches in developing their mineral resources.

Addressing ministers from Africa’s mineral-producing countries, Alake said the continent’s abundant mineral wealth could become a catalyst for industrialisation and economic transformation if nations collaborated on mineral processing, financing and infrastructure development.

“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,” he said.

Alake noted that Nigeria has consistently championed local processing and value addition as part of efforts to strengthen Africa’s position in the global critical minerals value chain.

As Chairman of the Africa Mineral Strategy Group (AMSG), he said member states were working towards a common continental strategy that would enable African countries to derive greater economic value from their mineral resources.

Nigeria advocates African mineral reporting code

The minister 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 aligns with the continent’s development aspirations.

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

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

According to him, the initiative would lower investment costs, facilitate regional trade and accelerate industrial development across West Africa.

He also expressed concern over Africa’s low level of intra-continental trade, noting that it accounts for about 16 per cent, compared with approximately 60 per cent in Asia and 70 per cent in Europe.

AfDB backs value addition and industrialisation

Earlier, the President of the African Development Bank, Dr. Sidi Ould Tah, said Africa’s vast mineral wealth had yet to translate into broad-based economic prosperity.

He observed 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.

Tah urged African countries to move beyond exporting raw minerals by developing integrated value chains capable of creating jobs, boosting industrialisation and supporting sustainable economic growth.

The forum adopted the Abidjan Declaration, committing participating countries to 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 Africa.

The declaration also commits to reducing investment risks, financing critical infrastructure, supporting bankable projects and promoting competitive, sustainable mineral value chains that can expand local industrial capacity and create jobs.

The meeting brought together 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.