Africa’s 30% critical minerals vital for AI and energy boom – IMF
Africa’s 30 per cent share of global critical mineral reserves positions the continent to benefit from surging demand for artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure and clean energy technologies, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has said. The post Africa’s 30% critical minerals vital for AI and energy boom – IMF appeared first on Ghana Business News .
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has highlighted Africa's significant role in the global AI and energy transitions, thanks to its 30% share of critical mineral reserves. Director of the IMF's African Department, Zeine Zeidane, emphasized that Africa's mineral wealth could be harnessed to benefit from the surging demand for AI infrastructure and clean energy technologies.
According to the IMF's analysis, scaling AI adoption across the continent could potentially boost economic growth by more than four percentage points over a decade. Moreover, addressing governance and business environment gaps could raise Africa's GDP by over 20% within a decade. However, Zeidane cautioned that mineral wealth alone would not guarantee prosperity without requisite reforms to mobilize capital and improve the investment climate.
The IMF report projected a 4.5% economic growth rate for Sub-Saharan Africa in 2026 and 2027, a 0.2 percentage point increase from the forecast made in April. Despite the ongoing conflict in the Middle East and a challenging global environment, the region entered the crisis with stronger buffers, having achieved near-balanced fiscal positions and stabilized debt by the end of 2025.
The region's resilience is attributed to earlier debt restructurings and policy adjustments, including subsidy and exchange rate reforms in Ethiopia and Nigeria, as well as structural reforms in South Africa that strengthened macroeconomic stability.
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