Tinubu to mineral strategy group: We must end exploitation of Africa’s critical minerals 

WE MUST PUT AN END TO THE EXPLOITATION OF AFRICA’S CRITICAL MINERALS, PRESIDENT TINUBU TELLS MINERALS STRATEGY GROUP

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on Tuesday urged member countries of the African Minerals Strategy Group (AMSG) to speak with one voice to promote Africa’s collective interests, ensure value addition, and prevent the continent from becoming merely a source of raw materials for the rest of the world.

President Tinubu gave the charge while receiving a delegation of AMSG in the State House. AMSG is a forum of Ministers in charge of Mining and Solid Minerals on the continent. The Nigerian leader is the Grand Patron of the group, which is chaired by Nigeria’s Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Mr Dele Alake.

President Tinubu told the delegation that the group has a critical role to play in strengthening Africa’s bargaining power in the global mineral market and ensuring that the continent derives maximum value from its natural resources.

“ 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.

“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.

“ 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. So why not utilise that in our research and development and knowledge-based economy to enhance the quality of life and bring prosperity to our people,” the President said.

President Tinubu emphasised that Africa possesses enormous mineral wealth that should be strategically harnessed to drive industrialisation, create jobs and accelerate economic transformation across the continent.

President Tinubu stressed that 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.

The chairman of AMSG and Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dele Alake, expressed gratitude to the President for his exemplary leadership under the Renewed Hope Agenda, which, according to him, has shown support for Nigeria’s mineral sector, especially in the local value-addition and economic diversification drive, where artisanal miners are empowered.

He said other African countries are emulating this approach.

Alake told the President: “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.

“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.

“So, sir, we have gone implemented your charge and we are quitted that today local value addition is reverberating all over Africa.”

He added that some member countries have gone ahead to ban the export of raw minerals.

The AMSG chairman also said that the President that AMSG members are in Abuja for the Fifth edition of the African Natural Resources and Energy Investment Summit (AFNIS 2026), where leaders are expected to push for a new continental approach to resource management and industrial development.

The Summit, with the theme “One Africa. One Resource Vision aims to position Africa as a major player in the global critical minerals value chain by promoting beneficiation, industrialisation and strategic cooperation among member states.

Alake reiterated AMSG’s commitment to upholding Africa’s interests, particularly in increasing the value and revenue accruing to the continent from its mineral sector, in line with President Tinubu’s enduring appeals.

Bayo Onanuga
Special Adviser to the President
(Information & Strategy)