UNGA81: Tinubu Urges Africa to Stop Exporting Raw Minerals

President Bola Tinubu has called for a renewed continental push to end the exploitation of Africa's critical mineral resources.

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

The roundtable was convened and chaired by President Tinubu, alongside AMSG Chairman and Nigeria's Minister of Solid Minerals, Dr Dele Alake. The event was themed "From Resources to Wealth: Continental Cooperation for Mineral Value Addition, Data Sovereignty, Innovative Financing and Critical Minerals Security," focusing on transforming Africa's mineral wealth into sustainable economic growth.

A Call to End Raw Material Exports

The Nigerian leader urged African nations to unite and halt the export of raw minerals, calling for an aggressive continental alliance to help Africa transition from a mere supplier of raw materials into a hub for local processing, manufacturing, and value addition.

Tinubu told African leaders and other stakeholders that the continent cannot claim to be wealthy while its children remain in poverty amid mines that enrich the rest of the world. "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 said.

He lamented that mineral-rich communities continue to lack infrastructure, jobs, and a genuine stake in their own wealth — even as global demand for clean energy, artificial intelligence, and advanced manufacturing makes Africa's critical minerals increasingly indispensable to global supply chains and economic security.

Processing and Industrialisation as the Path Forward

According to Tinubu, the solution to this deprivation must come through processing, refining, batteries, components, African technologies, and competitive skills development. "The worth of a mine must be counted in the lives it improves. Jobs, industries, infrastructure, technology transfer, African enterprise participation and prosperity retained across generations must measure our progress from resources to wealth," he said.

He warned, however, that no single African country can achieve this alone, cautioning that competing through lower royalties, weaker local content requirements, and excessive concessions would only weaken the continent's collective negotiating power. "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," he said.

Nigeria's Domestic Reforms Cited as Progress

Tinubu highlighted several domestic reforms, including requiring local value addition for new mining licences, strengthening geological data and investor access, organising artisanal miners into cooperatives, combating illegal mining, and improving regulatory accountability. He disclosed that mining sector revenue rose from approximately N6 billion in 2023 to over N38 billion in 2024, and between N68.1 billion and N70 billion in 2025.

"Major foreign investment commitments and large-scale lithium processing capacity developed and commissioned in Nasarawa State demonstrate the possibilities," he said, pointing to his administration's mining policy direction, which stipulates that mineral extracted in Nigeria must sustain Nigerian industries, workers, skills, and communities. He said these ongoing reforms demonstrate that "firm terms can attract serious capital."

Call for Reliable, Equitable Partnerships

Tinubu called for "reliable partnerships grounded in mutual benefit, shared responsibility, sovereign equality and respect for our priorities," with fair market access, industrial investment, and technology partnerships that build genuine African capabilities. He urged AMSG member countries to speak with one voice in promoting Africa's collective interests, insisting that reliability must never mean dependency, and partnership must never demand inequality.

Continental Integration and Economic Assurance Declaration

On the Continental Integration and Economic Assurance Declaration adopted and signed at the roundtable, Tinubu said it must establish a predictable, investment-ready environment for Africa's Strategic Mineral Corridors. He stressed that the declaration's authority must extend beyond the signing ceremony through a binding programme with clear timelines, financing, implementation, and public accountability, urging African nations to specify their national and regional contributions, and calling on development finance institutions and sovereign investors to propose financing platforms.

Declaring the roundtable open, Tinubu spearheaded the call for an aggressive alliance to retain the continent's mineral wealth. "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. Our industrial growth can strengthen global prosperity, the energy transition and secure supply chains. Minerals confer no automatic prosperity; vision, investment and industry must earn it. Political will must turn mineral promise into enduring African wealth," he said.

AMSG Chairman Outlines Continental Framework

Earlier, Alake said the group is proposing the Continental Integration and Economic Assurance Declaration (CIEAD), describing it as a landmark continental framework designed to establish a unified architecture for Africa's critical and solid minerals value chains. He said the strength of the gathering reflects the progress made in Africa's solid minerals sector, as demonstrated by the growth of AMSG itself.

Alake urged African countries yet to join the group to do so, in order to ensure synergy of efforts, ideas, and resources needed for the continent's natural resources. He observed that Africa's minerals ambitions cannot be realised through policy implementation alone, stressing the need for fully integrated partnerships spanning financial transactions and infrastructure development.

Kenya Underscores Domestic Resource Mobilisation

Also speaking, Kenya's Minister of Blue Economy and Maritime Affairs, Mr Hassan Ali-Joho, underscored the importance of domestic resource mobilisation as a catalyst for solid mineral development across Africa and beyond. He added that for AMSG members to achieve holistic transformation, they must remain transparent, competitive, and work toward greater alignment of licensing procedures.