Tinubu Rallies Africa Against Mineral Exploitation, Demands End To Raw Exports

• President Bola Tinubu has rallied African countries to end the export of critical minerals in raw form, arguing that the continent must stop supplying the materials that drive global industries while importing finished products made from its own resources at much higher prices.

• Speaking at the third Africa Minerals Strategy Group High-Level Roundtable in New York, Tinubu called for a united continental strategy on critical minerals, saying fragmented policies, weak local-content rules and competition through excessive concessions undermine Africa’s bargaining power and prevent it from retaining more wealth.

• The President said Africa’s mineral-rich communities must begin to see tangible benefits from the resources extracted from their lands, including jobs, infrastructure, technology transfer, industrial development and opportunities for African businesses, rather than remaining on the margins of mineral wealth.

• Tinubu also showcased Nigeria’s mining-sector reforms, citing a sharp rise in mining revenue and new lithium-processing investments, while demanding stronger geological data, local value-addition requirements, organised artisanal mining, tougher action against illegal mining and greater regulatory accountability.

September 22, () – President Bola Tinubu has called for a fresh continental offensive against the exploitation of Africa’s critical mineral resources, demanding an end to the export of raw minerals and a coordinated strategy to keep more of the wealth generated by the continent’s resources in Africa.

Tinubu, represented by Vice-President Kashim Shettima, made the call on Monday in New York at the third Africa Minerals Strategy Group (AMSG) High-Level Roundtable on Critical Minerals Development in Africa, held on the sidelines of the 81st Session of the United Nations General Assembly.

The roundtable, convened and chaired by Tinubu alongside AMSG Chairman and Nigeria’s Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dr Dele Alake, focused on moving Africa from the extraction and export of raw resources to processing, manufacturing and value addition.

The theme was “From Resources to Wealth: Continental Cooperation for Mineral Value Addition, Data Sovereignty, Innovative Financing and Critical Minerals Security.”

Tinubu told African leaders, investors and other stakeholders that the continent could no longer claim to be wealthy while its mineral-rich communities remained poor and its raw materials continued to fuel industrial growth elsewhere.

He said Africa must move decisively from being a supplier of raw minerals to becoming a major centre for processing, refining, manufacturing, technology development and skills acquisition.

“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.

‘Stop Exporting Raw Materials, Buying Back Finished Goods’

The President warned that the existing model leaves Africa at a disadvantage because the continent exports raw materials and subsequently imports finished products at significantly higher prices.

“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”, Tinubu said.

He called for an aggressive alliance among African countries to ensure that critical minerals are processed and transformed within the continent before being integrated into global supply chains.

The Nigerian leader identified processing, refining, battery production, component manufacturing, African technologies and competitive skills as essential components of the transition.

President Tinubu said the measure of mineral wealth should not be the volume extracted or the revenue collected alone, but the extent to which mining improves the lives of citizens.

“The worth of a mine must be counted in the lives it improves,” he said.

According to him, jobs, industries, infrastructure, technology transfer, African enterprise participation and prosperity retained across generations should determine whether Africa is successfully converting its resources into wealth.

The United Nations has similarly warned that Africa risks repeating the long-standing pattern of exporting raw materials while receiving a disproportionately small share of the wealth generated from them. The UN Office of the Special Adviser on Africa said the growing global demand for critical minerals presents an opportunity for structural transformation if African countries can move beyond extraction and build processing and industrial capacity.

Tinubu Warns Against Fragmented Negotiations

Tinubu said no African country could achieve the desired transformation alone. He warned that competition among African states through lower royalties, weaker local-content requirements and excessive concessions could diminish the continent’s collective negotiating strength.

Rather than compete against one another for mining investments, he urged African countries to integrate their markets, mobilise African capital and coordinate their positions when negotiating with external partners.

“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,” he said.

Tinubu maintained that Africa could simultaneously strengthen its own industrial base and contribute to global prosperity, the energy transition and secure international supply chains. But he stressed that the mere possession of mineral deposits would not automatically translate into development.

“Minerals confer no automatic prosperity; vision, investment and industry must earn it. Political will must turn mineral promise into enduring African wealth,” he said.

Nigeria’s Mining Revenue Rises

The President also used the forum to highlight reforms in Nigeria’s solid minerals sector, saying the government was determined to make mineral extraction serve domestic industrial development. He said Nigeria would require local value addition for new mining licences, strengthen geological data and investor access, organise artisanal miners into cooperatives, combat illegal mining and improve regulatory accountability.

Tinubu said mining-sector revenue had increased from approximately N6 billion in 2023 to more than N38 billion in 2024, and to between N68.1 billion and N70 billion in 2025. He also cited major foreign investment commitments and the development and commissioning of large-scale lithium-processing capacity in Nasarawa State as evidence of the potential of the reforms.

The President said his administration’s policy direction was that minerals extracted in Nigeria must help sustain Nigerian industries, workers, skills and communities. He argued that the country’s experience showed that stronger regulatory requirements did not necessarily discourage serious investors.

“Firm terms can attract serious capital”, he said.

Tinubu called for partnerships based on mutual benefit, shared responsibility, sovereign equality and respect for African priorities. He specifically demanded fair market access, industrial investment and technology partnerships capable of building African capacity rather than reinforcing dependency.

CIEAD Targets Integrated Mineral Value Chains

A major development at the roundtable was the adoption and signing of the Continental Integration and Economic Assurance Declaration (CIEAD).

Alake described the declaration as a landmark continental framework designed to establish a unified architecture for Africa’s critical and solid minerals value chains.

Tinubu said the declaration must go beyond a ceremonial signing and result in an actionable programme with clearly defined timelines, financing arrangements, implementation mechanisms and public accountability.

He called on African countries to identify their national and regional contributions, while urging development finance institutions and sovereign investors to develop financing platforms for mineral processing, infrastructure and related industries.

The proposed framework is intended to support the development of Africa’s strategic mineral corridors and create a more predictable environment for investment and cross-border industrial cooperation.

The AMSG had announced ahead of the meeting that the New York roundtable would focus on value addition, investment mobilisation, supply-chain security and policy coordination, with the CIEAD designed to strengthen continental cooperation around those objectives.

Earlier, Alake said the growing strength of the AMSG reflected the increasing recognition among African countries that mineral development required coordinated continental action.

He urged African countries that had yet to join the group to do so, stressing the need for greater synergy in the deployment of ideas, resources and policies relating to Africa’s mineral wealth.

Alake said Africa’s mineral ambitions could not be achieved through policy statements alone, arguing that integrated partnerships were required across financing, infrastructure development, industrial production and mineral value chains.

The AMSG, chaired by Alake, is a forum of African ministers responsible for mining and solid minerals. Tinubu serves as Chairman of its General Assembly and has repeatedly called on member states to use the platform to strengthen Africa’s bargaining power and ensure greater value retention from the continent’s resources.

Kenya Calls For Harmonised Mining Rules

Kenya’s Minister of Blue Economy and Maritime Affairs, Hassan Ali Joho, underscored the importance of domestic resource mobilisation as a catalyst for the development of Africa’s solid minerals sector.

Joho said AMSG members must remain transparent and competitive while working towards greater alignment of licensing procedures across countries.

He stressed that stronger cooperation, harmonised approaches and increased domestic financing would be necessary to achieve a more integrated African mineral economy.