Nigeria’s 44 minerals enough to tackle poverty – Wunti
The Chief Executive Officer of World Energy Council Nigeria, Bala Wunti, has urged the Federal Government to ensure that the country’s 44 critical minerals are developed into factories, jobs and sustainable economic opportunities for Nigerians. Wunti warned that Nigeria must not repeat the crude oil model of exporting raw materials and importing finished products at […]
Bala Wunti, CEO of World Energy Council Nigeria, called on the Federal Government to transform Nigeria's 44 critical minerals into factories, jobs, and sustainable economic opportunities. He cautioned against repeating the crude oil model of exporting raw materials and importing finished products at higher prices. Wunti spoke at the 2026 Concordia Annual Summit in New York, participating in a panel discussing America's reliance on imported minerals and China's dominance in global mineral processing.
He urged Nigeria to move beyond exporting mineral tonnage and develop domestic processing and manufacturing capacity, warning that history has shown poverty results from exporting crude oil and importing refined products. The absence of reliable geological data and commercially structured projects, according to Wunti, hindered Nigeria's development of mineral resources.
He emphasized the need for investors to focus on projects, not potential, and highlighted the Nigerian Solid Minerals Company as the government's flagship platform for transforming mineral resources into bankable projects. Wunti stressed that attracting private capital requires providing investors with commercially viable transactions and cited a price floor of $110 per kilogram as necessary for attracting processing facilities and creating jobs.
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