Nigeria, AfDB Push for African Control Over Mineral Wealth, Local Processing

Nigeria, alongside the African Development Bank (AfDB), is spearheading a renewed call for African nations to assert greater control over the continent's abundant mineral wealth. The core message emphasizes the critical need for local value addition, enhanced regional cooperation, strategic financing, and direct ownership of mineral data to ensure Africa reaps substantial economic benefits from its natural resources.

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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.

This push was a central theme at the Ministerial Forum on Critical Minerals, Value Chain and Beneficiation, held in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire. Nigeria’s Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dr. Dele Alake, urged mineral-producing countries to move beyond isolated national strategies. He advocated for a unified regional approach, built on interdependence and shared infrastructure, to unlock the continent's full mineral potential.

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Africa’s vast mineral endowment would generate significantly greater returns if countries adopted a coordinated strategy built on interdependence, value addition and shared infrastructure.

Alake stressed that while the concept of local beneficiation has opened doors to economic independence, African nations require practical, actionable strategies to achieve "total economic freedom" by taking charge of their mineral assets. As chair of the Africa Mineral Strategy Group (AMSG), he also called for African sovereignty over the technical systems used to evaluate mineral resources. He criticized the continued reliance on the Australia-based Joint Ore Reserves Committee (JORC) standard as outdated, promoting instead the Pan African Resource Reporting Code (PARC) developed by the Africa Minerals Development Centre (AMDC) for greater transparency and relevance to Africa's realities.

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The continent’s continued reliance on the Australia-based Joint Ore Reserves Committee (JORC) reporting standard as outdated.

Further proposals included establishing a West African minerals processing hub, modeled after the Lobito Corridor, to reduce investment costs, boost cross-border trade, and distribute benefits more equitably. The minister also highlighted Africa's weak trade integration, with intra-African trade at only about 16 percent, compared to much higher figures in Asia and Europe. AfDB President Dr. Sidi Ould Tah acknowledged the paradox of Africa possessing vast mineral wealth without corresponding development, underscoring the urgency of these initiatives.

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Africa continues to face the paradox of possessing enormous mineral wealth without corresponding development.