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Urges continental value addition
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President Bola Tinubu on Tuesday called on members of the African Minerals Strategy Group (AMSG) to unite and end the exploitation of Africa’s critical minerals by ensuring value addition, local processing and technology transfer across the continent.
President Tinubu, who serves as the group’s Grand Patron, made the call while receiving the AMSG delegation at the State House on Tuesday, according to a statement issued by the Special Adviser on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga.
He said African governments must speak with one voice to strengthen the continent’s bargaining power in the global mineral market and prevent Africa from remaining merely a source of raw materials.
“What we should do is avoid bureaucracy and deceit; we must put an end to exploitation,” Tinubu told ministers and officials. “The rest of the world won’t mind if your country is a cesspit of dams and rubbish and excavates your raw materials without giving value. It is our responsibility to collaborate and cooperate to ensure that these metals and minerals bring value to us, bring technology to us, and we can do it.”
Tinubu urged AMSG members to prioritise research, development and local refining, and suggested centralising parts of that conversation on the continent. “It is how much each country will put into the research, development and refinery. I don’t see reasons we cannot demand centralisation of that conversation somewhere on the continent,” he said, adding that a knowledge-based approach would “enhance the quality of life and bring prosperity to our people.”
The President emphasised that Africa’s mineral wealth should be harnessed to drive industrialisation, create jobs and accelerate economic transformation, calling for a break from the era of exporting unprocessed resources. “The era of exporting raw minerals without local processing and beneficiation must give way to a new model that encourages investment in local industries, technology transfer and the development of value chains that retain wealth within Africa,” he said.
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The Minister of Solid Minerals Development and Chair of AMSG, Dele Alake, commended Tinubu’s “exemplary leadership under the Renewed Hope Agenda,” saying the administration’s focus on local value addition and economic diversification had empowered artisanal miners and inspired other African countries.
“You encouraged us to look at the focal point of the establishment of this group, which is to ensure that the African natural resources, especially with regards to minerals, critical matters, are localised, the beneficiation coming directly to Africans generally,” he said. “You charged us that we should set our sails very high and ensure that local value addition is a pivot around which all the objectives of this organisation should revolve.”
Alake told the President that AMSG members had already begun implementing that directive, with some countries moving to ban raw mineral exports. He said delegates were in Abuja for the fifth African Natural Resources and Energy Investment Summit (AFNIS 2026), themed “One Africa. One Resource Vision,” a platform he said would push for a continental approach to resource management and industrial development.
“We have implemented your charge and we are satisfied that today local value addition is reverberating all over Africa,” Alake said.
The summit aimed to position Africa as a major player in the global critical minerals value chain by promoting beneficiation, industrialisation and strategic cooperation among member states.
The AMSG reiterated its commitment to increasing the value and revenue accruing to the continent from its mineral sector, aligning with Tinubu’s call for greater collaboration and policy coordination.
