Nigeria and the African Development Bank (AfDB) have called for stronger African control over the continent’s vast mineral resources, advocating data sovereignty, regional collaboration and strategic financing as essential to ensuring that mineral-rich countries in Africa derive greater economic value from their natural assets.
Addressing the Ministerial Forum on Critical Minerals, Value Chain and Beneficiation: Pathways for African Transformation, held under the auspices of the African Development Bank (AfDB) in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, Solid Minerals Development Minister, Dele Alake, urged fellow ministers from Africa’s mineral-producing countries to adopt a strategic approach to interdependence and regional cooperation.
The forum brought together more than 20 ministers responsible for mining, energy, industry, natural resources and the green economy, as well as representatives of the African Development Bank, the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank), the US Export-Import Bank and mining companies from Germany, Canada and the United States, among others.
Alake stressed that the continent’s vast mineral wealth could generate far greater benefits if countries worked together rather than pursuing isolated national approaches, according to a press statement signed by the Minister’s Special Assistant on Media, Lara Owoeye-Wise, on Sunday.
In his welcome remarks, the President of the AFDB, Dr Sidi Ould Tah, highlighted the paradoxes confronting Africa despite its enormous mineral wealth. He pointed to the contradiction between Africa’s vast size and resources and its limited global influence, noting that the continent’s substantial deposits of critical minerals have yet to translate into commensurate gains in Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
Dr Tah also identified the paradox of opportunity without adequate finance, reflected in the low levels of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) flowing into Africa. Both leaders agreed that African countries must move beyond the traditional extraction of raw minerals and develop concrete strategies to take full control of their natural assets.
“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,” Alake said. Alake, who is the pioneering Chair of the Africa Mineral Strategy Group (AMSG), also highlighted Nigeria’s role in advancing a common continental approach to mineral development, acknowledging the contributions of the group’s more than 30-member countries in repositioning African mineral-producing nations around the principle of value addition.
However, he stressed that African countries must also achieve sovereignty over the data and technical systems used to assess their mineral wealth. He described the longstanding reliance of African countries on the Australia-based Joint Ore Reserves Committee (JORC) as the standard for estimating and publicly reporting mineral exploration results as outdated.