Tinubu Pushes for United African Front on Minerals, Demands End to Raw Material Exploitation

President Bola Tinubu has called on African nations to adopt a common strategy for managing the continent’s vast mineral resources, warning that continued export of raw materials without value addition amounts to economic exploitation.

Speaking on Tuesday at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, while receiving a delegation of the African Minerals Strategy Group (AMSG), Tinubu urged member states to close ranks and strengthen Africa’s bargaining power in the global minerals market.

The President, who serves as the Grand Patron of the AMSG, said African countries must work collectively to ensure that the continent’s abundant mineral wealth translates into industrial growth, technological advancement, and improved living standards for its people.

“What we should do is avoid bureaucracy and deceit; we must put an end to exploitation. 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,” Tinubu said.

“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 stressed the need for greater investment in research, development, and mineral refining infrastructure across Africa, arguing that the continent must move beyond being a supplier of raw materials to becoming a hub for mineral processing and industrial manufacturing.

According to him, Africa must centralise discussions around mineral beneficiation and develop a coordinated approach that prioritises local content and value addition.

“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.

The President noted that Africa’s enormous deposits of critical minerals provide a unique opportunity to build a knowledge-driven economy capable of creating jobs, driving industrialisation, and fostering sustainable development.

He warned that the era of exporting raw minerals while importing finished products must come to an end, insisting that African countries should retain greater economic benefits from their natural resources.

Earlier, Nigeria’s Minister of Solid Minerals Development and Chairman of the AMSG, Dele Alake, commended Tinubu for providing leadership that has repositioned the mining sector as a key pillar of economic diversification under the Renewed Hope Agenda.

Alake said the President had consistently encouraged African countries to focus on local beneficiation and industrial processing of mineral resources.

“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 and critical materials, are localised, with the beneficiation coming directly to Africans,” Alake 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.”

The minister revealed that a growing number of African countries are already introducing policies aimed at restricting the export of raw minerals and encouraging domestic processing industries.

He added that delegates from across the continent are currently in Abuja for the African Natural Resources and Energy Investment Summit (AFNIS 2026), where stakeholders are exploring ways to strengthen Africa’s position in global critical mineral value chains.

The African Minerals Strategy Group was established to promote cooperation among mineral-producing countries on the continent and to ensure that Africa derives greater economic benefits from its vast reserves of critical minerals, many of which are essential for the global energy transition and emerging technologies.