By Augustine Ehikioya
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has called for an aggressive alliance among African nations to end exploitation of the continent’s critical mineral resources and halt raw material exports.
Tinubu made the call in New York at the 3rd Africa Minerals Strategy Group, AMSG, and High-Level Roundtable on Critical Minerals Development in Africa, held on the sidelines of the 81st UNGA.
The roundtable themed “From Resources to Wealth: Continental Cooperation for Mineral Value Addition, Data Sovereignty, Innovative Financing and Critical Minerals Security” was convened and chaired by Tinubu.
His address was delivered by Vice President Kashim Shettima alongside AMSG Chairman and Minister of Solid Minerals, Dr. Dele Alake.
“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,” Tinubu said.
According to a statement by Stanley Nkwocha, Senior Special Assistant To The President on Media & Communications (Office of The Vice President), he lamented that mineral-rich communities lack infrastructure and jobs while global demand for cobalt, copper, lithium and rare earths for clean energy, AI and manufacturing has made Africa indispensable.
“The worth of a mine must be counted in the lives it improves. Jobs, industries, infrastructure, technology transfer, African enterprise participation and prosperity retained across generations must measure our progress,” he said.
Tinubu warned that no African country can achieve value addition alone, saying competition through lower royalties and excessive concessions weakens negotiating 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 cited Nigeria’s reforms: requiring local value addition for new licences, strengthening geological data, organizing artisanal miners, combating illegal mining, with revenue rising from about N6 billion in 2023 to over N38 billion in 2024 and between N68.1bn and N70bn in 2025, plus lithium processing in Nasarawa.
On the Continental Integration and Economic Assurance Declaration adopted at the roundtable, Tinubu said it must create predictable, investment-ready environment for Africa’s Strategic Mineral Corridors with timelines, financing and accountability.
“Africa’s power resides in its people, markets and ingenuity. No outsider will organise our continent. Minerals confer no automatic prosperity; vision, investment and industry must earn it,” he declared.
Earlier, Alake said the Declaration is a landmark framework for unified mineral value chains and urged more African countries to join AMSG.
Kenya’s Minister of Blue Economy, Hassan Ali Joho, stressed domestic resource mobilisation, transparency and alignment of licensing while respecting sovereignty.
