Tinubu Seeks Aggressive Alliance To Guard Africa’s Mineral Wealth

President Bola Tinubu has called for a renewed continental effort to prevent Africa from merely exporting raw minerals, urging nations to forge an "aggressive alliance" to shift the focus from mere resource extraction to processing, manufacturing, and value addition. During the AMSG High-Level Roundtable on Critical Minerals Development in Africa, held in New York, Tinubu emphasized that Africa cannot claim wealth while its people suffer poverty amidst mineral-rich areas.

He lamented that mineral-rich communities lack infrastructure, jobs, and a stake in their own wealth, especially as global demand for critical minerals like cobalt, copper, lithium, and rare earth elements surges due to the clean energy, AI, and advanced manufacturing sectors. Tinubu stressed that processing, refining, and creating components from the continent's critical minerals must generate jobs, industries, infrastructure, and transfer technology, ensuring that the value of a mine is reflected in the lives it improves.

He warned that no single African country can achieve this alone, and that unity of purpose, rather than a fragmented approach, is essential to retain control over the continent's mineral wealth.