The Federal Government and the African Development Bank have urged African countries to take greater control of the continent’s abundant mineral resources by ending the long-standing practice of exporting raw minerals while importing finished products derived from the same resources.
The appeal was made by the Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dele Alake, during the Ministerial Forum on Critical Minerals, Value Chain and Beneficiation: Pathways for African Transformation, organised by the African Development Bank in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire.
At the forum, Alake proposed the establishment of a West African minerals processing corridor linking Lagos to Dakar, describing it as a model similar to the Lobito Corridor serving Central and Southern Africa.
The development was disclosed in a statement issued on Sunday by the minister’s Special Assistant on Media, Lara Owoeye-Wise.
The forum attracted more than 20 ministers overseeing mining, energy, industry, natural resources and the green economy across Africa, alongside representatives of development finance institutions, international financial organisations and mining companies.
Addressing participants, the minister stressed the need for African nations to abandon fragmented national policies and adopt a coordinated continental strategy that would enable them to process, control and maximise the value of their mineral resources.
Alake, who serves as the pioneer chairman of the Africa Mineral Strategy Group, said the continent stood to gain significantly more from its mineral endowment through shared infrastructure, integrated regional value chains and harmonised standards.
“While the mantra of value addition has ushered in an era of economic independence for mineral-producing nations, we need concrete, actionable strategies to take charge and be in full control of our natural assets to ensure total economic freedom,” he said.
The minister also maintained that Africa must secure control not only over its mineral deposits but also over the data and technical systems used to determine the value of those resources.
He criticised the continued reliance on foreign reporting standards for mineral exploration and reserve evaluation, insisting that the continent should adopt frameworks tailored to its geological, environmental and economic realities.
“For the overall interest of the continent, and to efficiently and effectively safeguard its resources, Africa should take charge of the coding mechanisms utilised to assess its mineral assets,” Alake said.
He advocated the adoption of the Pan-African Resource Reporting Code, developed by the Africa Minerals Development Centre, as the standard framework for reporting mineral and energy resources across the continent.
According to him, the reporting code would improve transparency, consistency and ethical standards in mineral resource certification while reflecting the unique geological and environmental characteristics of African nations.
Reiterating his proposal, the minister called for the creation of a West African minerals processing corridor from Lagos to Dakar, modelled after the Lobito Corridor.
He explained that such a regional initiative would lower the huge financial costs associated with building separate mineral processing facilities in every country while encouraging cross-border trade and industrial collaboration.
Alake further urged African countries to embrace strategic interdependence rather than compete against one another, noting that the distribution of mineral resources across different countries made regional cooperation critical for establishing commercially viable value chains.
He added that the proposed Lagos-Dakar corridor aligns with Nigeria’s broader objective of becoming a regional hub for mineral processing, industrialisation and value addition.
The minister also expressed concern over the low volume of trade among African countries, saying the continent would struggle to industrialise if it continued to trade more with external markets than within Africa.
According to him, intra-African trade currently stands at about 16 per cent, compared with nearly 60 per cent in Asia and about 70 per cent in Europe.
Earlier, President of the African Development Bank, Sidi Ould Tah, highlighted what he described as the paradox surrounding Africa’s vast mineral resources.
He also noted the contradiction between the continent’s enormous investment opportunities and the limited financing available, reflected in the relatively low level of foreign direct investment attracted to Africa.
Both the Federal Government and the AfDB agreed that Africa must move beyond exporting raw minerals and instead prioritise domestic processing, industrial development and job creation through mineral beneficiation.
The forum later adopted the Abidjan Declaration, which identified financing as a key driver of efforts to transform Africa’s solid minerals sector.
Under the declaration, the African Development Bank pledged to deploy its financial instruments, capital mobilisation capacity, project structuring expertise and technical support to assist mineral-producing countries while attracting both public and private investment into the sector.
The bank also committed to reducing risks associated with strategic mining projects, financing critical infrastructure, supporting the development of bankable projects and accelerating the growth of competitive, inclusive and sustainable critical mineral value chains.
The declaration further urged mineral-producing countries to strengthen national and regional capacities capable of attracting project financing while promoting sustainable local value addition and employment generation.
