President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has called for a fresh continental push to end the historical exploitation of Africa’s critical mineral resources, urging African nations to unite and halt the export of raw materials.
The President made the call on Monday in New York, United States, during the Africa Minerals Strategy Group High-Level Roundtable on Critical Minerals Development in Africa held on the sidelines of the 81st Session of the United Nations General Assembly.
Convened and chaired by President Tinubu, the roundtable with the theme “From Resources to Wealth: Continental Cooperation for Mineral Value Addition, Data Sovereignty, Innovative Financing and Critical Minerals Security,” focused on transforming the continent’s mineral wealth into sustainable economic growth.
The address was delivered on behalf of the President by Vice President Kashim Shettima, alongside AMSG Chairman and Minister of Solid Minerals, Dr. Dele Alake.
In his address, President Tinubu told African leaders and stakeholders that the continent cannot claim to be wealthy while its children wallow in poverty amid mines that enrich the world.
“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 declared.
He regretted that mineral-rich communities lack infrastructure, jobs, and a stake in their own wealth at a time when global demand for clean energy, AI, and advanced manufacturing has made Africa’s critical minerals like cobalt, copper, lithium, and rare earth elements 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 from resources to wealth,” he said, noting that the answer must be processing, refining, batteries, components, African technologies and competitive skills.
The Nigerian leader warned that no African country can achieve this alone, adding that competing through lower royalties, weaker local content, and excessive concessions will only weaken the continent’s 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.
President Tinubu said back home, Nigeria must require local value addition for new mining licenses, strengthen geological data and investor access, organize artisanal miners into cooperatives, combat illegal mining, and improve regulatory accountability.
“Revenue rose from approximately ₦6 billion in 2023 to over ₦38 billion in 2024 and between ₦68.1 billion and ₦70 billion in 2025. Major foreign investment commitments and large-scale lithium processing capacity developed and commissioned in Nasarawa State demonstrate the possibilities,” he said.
He stated that his administration’s mining policy stipulates that minerals extracted in Nigeria must sustain Nigerian industries, workers, skills, and communities, saying ongoing reforms indicate that firm terms can attract serious capital.
He called for reliable partnerships grounded in mutual benefit, shared responsibility, sovereign equality and respect for Africa’s priorities, with fair market access, industrial investment and technology partnerships that build African capabilities.
On the Continental Integration and Economic Assurance Declaration adopted and signed at the Roundtable, the President said it must establish a predictable, investment-ready environment for Africa’s Strategic Mineral Corridors, harmonised policies, responsible investment and shared infrastructure.
He said the Declaration’s authority must survive the signing ceremony through a binding programme with timelines, financing, implementation and public accountability.
“Africa’s power resides in its people, markets and ingenuity. No outsider will organise our continent or place our industrial interests above their own. We must integrate our markets, mobilise African capital and negotiate with one voice wherever our interests converge,” Tinubu said.
“Our industrial growth can strengthen global prosperity, the energy transition and secure supply chains. Minerals confer no automatic prosperity; vision, investment and industry must earn it. Political will must turn mineral promise into enduring African wealth.”
Earlier, Chairman of the AMSG and Minister of Solid Minerals, Dele Alake, said the group is proposing a Continental Integration and Economic Assurance Declaration as a landmark framework designed to establish a unified architecture for Africa’s critical and solid minerals value chains.
Alake urged African countries that have yet to join the group to do so to ensure synergy of efforts, ideas and resources.
Kenya’s Minister of Blue Economy and Maritime Affairs, Hassan Ali Joho, underscored the importance of domestic resource mobilisation as a catalyst for solid mineral development, adding that AMSG members must stay transparent, competitive and work towards greater alignment of licensing procedure while respecting sovereignty.
The roundtable also featured contributions from representatives of Liberia, Chad and Tanzania, among other stakeholders, according to a statement by the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Communications, Office of the Vice President, Stanley Nkwocha.