By | Goodluck E. Adubazi, Abuja
The Chairman of the Africa Minerals Strategy Group (AMSG) and Nigeria’s Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dr. Dele Alake, has unveiled the Continental Integration and Economic Assurance Declaration (CIEAD) as a landmark framework to establish a unified architecture for Africa’s critical and solid minerals value chains.
Alake made the disclosure on Monday at the 3rd Africa Minerals Strategy Group High-Level Roundtable on Critical Minerals Development in Africa, held in New York, United States, on the sidelines of the 81st Session of the United Nations General Assembly.
The high-level roundtable, themed “From Resources to Wealth: Continental Cooperation for Mineral Value Addition, Data Sovereignty, Innovative Financing and Critical Minerals Security,” brought together African leaders, ministers and other stakeholders to deliberate on strategies for transforming the continent’s mineral resources into sustainable economic wealth.
According to Alake, the proposed CIEAD is designed to provide a continental framework for greater integration of Africa’s critical minerals sector and strengthen cooperation across the entire value chain.
He said the strength of the gathering reflected the progress made in Africa’s solid minerals sector, particularly the growth of the AMSG as a platform for continental cooperation.
The minister urged African countries that are yet to join the AMSG to become members, stressing that greater participation would enhance synergy in the deployment of ideas, resources and efforts towards developing Africa’s natural resources.
Alake maintained that Africa’s mineral ambitions could not be achieved through policy implementation alone, stressing the need for fully integrated partnerships covering financial transactions, infrastructure development and other critical components of the minerals value chain.
Also speaking at the roundtable, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu called for a renewed continental push to end the historical exploitation of Africa’s critical mineral resources, urging African countries to unite against the export of raw materials.
The President, whose address was delivered by Vice President Kashim Shettima, said Africa must move from being a supplier of raw minerals to becoming a hub for processing, manufacturing and value addition.
Tinubu said African countries must build an aggressive alliance capable of ensuring that the continent derives greater economic and industrial benefits from its mineral resources.
“For generations, Africa has furnished the materials of prosperity elsewhere. Our duty is to ensure that the future being fashioned from African minerals has room for African ambition,” he declared.
The President expressed concern that mineral-rich communities continue to lack infrastructure, jobs and adequate participation in the wealth generated from their natural resources.
He noted that increasing global demand for clean energy, artificial intelligence and advanced manufacturing had made African critical minerals, including cobalt, copper, lithium and rare earth elements, increasingly important to global supply chains and economic security.
According to him, Africa’s response must include processing, refining, battery production, component manufacturing, African technologies and competitive skills.
“The worth of a mine must be counted in the lives it improves,” Tinubu said, adding that jobs, industries, infrastructure, technology transfer, African enterprise participation and prosperity retained across generations should be the measures of progress from resources to wealth.
The President warned that no African country could achieve the desired transformation alone, stressing that competition through lower royalties, weaker local content requirements and excessive concessions could undermine the continent’s negotiating strength.
“Fragmentation leaves us exporting raw materials and buying finished goods at a premium. Cooperation gives our markets scale, our industries integration, our financing reach and our negotiations authority,” he said.
Tinubu said Nigeria’s mining reforms were focused on ensuring that minerals extracted in the country contribute to Nigerian industries, workers, skills and host communities.
He listed some of the reforms to include local value-addition requirements for new mining licences, improved geological data and investor access, the organisation of artisanal miners into cooperatives, efforts to combat illegal mining and stronger regulatory accountability.
The President disclosed that mining revenue increased from approximately ₦6 billion in 2023 to over ₦38 billion in 2024, and further to between ₦68.1 billion and ₦70 billion in 2025.
He also cited major foreign investment commitments and the development and commissioning of large-scale lithium processing capacity in Nasarawa State as indications of the opportunities available in the sector.
Tinubu urged other African countries to adapt relevant lessons from Nigeria’s experience, while calling for partnerships based on mutual benefit, shared responsibility, sovereign equality, fair market access, industrial investment and technology transfer.
On the CIEAD adopted and signed at the roundtable, President Tinubu said the declaration should establish a predictable and investment-ready environment for Africa’s strategic mineral corridors through harmonised policies, responsible investment and shared infrastructure.
He stressed that the declaration must go beyond a signing ceremony and be backed by a binding implementation programme with clear timelines, financing mechanisms and public accountability.
Tinubu called on African countries to specify their national and regional contributions, while urging development finance institutions and sovereign investors to develop appropriate financing platforms.
He further urged AMSG member countries to speak with one voice in promoting Africa’s collective interests.
“Africa’s power resides in its people, markets and ingenuity. No outsider will organise our continent or place our industrial interests above their own. We must integrate our markets, mobilise African capital and negotiate with one voice wherever our interests converge,” he said.
Kenya’s Minister of Blue Economy and Maritime Affairs, Hassan Ali Joho, underscored the importance of domestic resource mobilisation as a catalyst for solid minerals development in Africa.
Joho said AMSG members must remain transparent and competitive while working towards greater alignment of licensing procedures, with due respect for the sovereignty of individual member states.
Representatives of the governments of Liberia, Chad and Tanzania, among other stakeholders, also contributed to discussions on strategies for strengthening Africa’s critical minerals sector.
The roundtable was convened as part of efforts to deepen continental cooperation and ensure that Africa’s mineral resources are increasingly converted into industrial development, jobs, investment, technology and long-term economic value for the continent.
