Tinubu Demands African Alliance to End Raw Mineral Exports

President Bola Tinubu has called for a fresh continental alliance to end Africa’s dependence on exporting raw minerals and turn the continent into a hub for processing, manufacturing and mineral based industrialisation.

Tinubu made the call through Vice President Kashim Shettima at the third Africa Minerals Strategy Group High Level Roundtable on Critical Minerals Development in Africa, held on the sidelines of the 81st United Nations General Assembly in New York.
The meeting, convened alongside AMSG Chairman and Nigeria’s Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dele Alake, was held under the theme, “From Resources to Wealth: Continental Cooperation for Mineral Addition, Data Sovereignty, Innovative Financing and Critical Minerals Security.”
Tinubu urged African countries to speak with one voice and strengthen cooperation around their mineral resources as global demand rises for minerals used in clean energy, artificial intelligence, advanced manufacturing and other strategic industries.
“For generations, Africa has furnished the materials of elsewhere. Our duty is to ensure that the future being fashioned from African minerals has room for African ambition,” Tinubu said.
The President said mineral rich African communities continued to lack infrastructure, jobs and a meaningful stake in the wealth generated from resources extracted from their territories.
He argued that Africa’s response should move beyond extraction.
The answer, he said, “must be processing, refining, batteries, components, African technologies and competitive skills.”
Tinubu’s intervention comes as African countries face growing competition from major economies seeking secure supplies of lithium, cobalt, copper, graphite, manganese, rare earth elements and other minerals regarded as strategically important.
The continent possesses substantial deposits of several of these resources, but much of its mineral production has historically been exported in raw or minimally processed form.
The AMSG roundtable sought to address that pattern by examining mineral value addition, financing, geological data, infrastructure and continental cooperation.
Tinubu also called for partnerships that would allow Africa to attract investment without surrendering control over the development of its mineral industries.
He urged “reliable partnerships grounded in mutual benefit, shared responsibility, sovereign equality and respect for our priorities.”
He also called for “fair market access, industrial investment and technology partnerships that build African capabilities.”
The Nigerian President’s position coincides with a fresh UN initiative announced on Wednesday to support Nigeria, Zambia, Guinea, Zimbabwe, Madagascar and Indonesia in extracting greater value from their critical minerals.
The UN said the programme would provide participating countries with assistance in policy, regulation, environmental and social safeguards and mineral value chains.
For Africa, the timing is significant.
The global critical minerals market is increasingly shaped not only by the availability of mineral deposits but by access to refining capacity, processing technology, financing, infrastructure and downstream manufacturing.
The United States is building s rategic inventories of critical minerals, while China maintains a dominant position in several processing and refining chains.
Against this background, African governments are seeking to strengthen their bargaining position by promoting local processing and greater control over mineral value chains.
The challenge, however, extends beyond banning or restricting exports of unprocessed minerals.
Developing viable African processing industries requires reliable power, transport infrastructure, geological information, technical expertise, financing, environmental safeguards and predictable regulatory systems.
Tinubu said Africa’s mineral development should ultimately be measured by its impact on the people living in resource producing communities.
“The worth of a mine must be counted in the lives it improves,” he said.
The New York roundtable therefore placed African mineral value addition within a wider global conversation about resource security, industrialisation and the future architecture of critical mineral supply chains.