President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has called on African countries to unite in protecting the continent’s mineral wealth, urging members of the African Minerals Strategy Group (AMSG) to end the exploitation of Africa’s critical minerals and prioritise local value addition.
The President made the appeal on Tuesday while receiving a delegation from the African Minerals Strategy Group at the State House in Abuja.
AMSG, a forum comprising ministers responsible for mining and solid minerals across Africa, has President Tinubu as its Grand Patron and is chaired by Nigeria’s Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dele Alake.
President Tinubu said the group has a pivotal role in strengthening Africa’s negotiating position in the global minerals market and ensuring the continent derives maximum benefit from its abundant natural resources.
“What we should do is avoid bureaucracy and deceit; we must put an end to exploitation. The rest of the world won’t mind if your country is a cesspit of dams and rubbish and excavates your raw materials without giving value.
“It is our responsibility to collaborate and cooperate to ensure that these metals and minerals bring value to us, bring technology to us, and we can do it.
“It is how much each country will put into the research, development and refinery. I don’t see reasons we cannot demand centralisation of that conversation somewhere on the continent. So why not utilise that in our research and development and knowledge-based economy to enhance the quality of life and bring prosperity to our people,” the President said.
Tinubu stressed that Africa’s vast mineral resources must be strategically harnessed to accelerate industrialisation, create jobs and drive economic transformation across the continent.
He also insisted that the long-standing model of exporting raw minerals without local processing must end, advocating a new approach that encourages investment in domestic industries, technology transfer and the development of value chains that retain wealth within Africa.
Speaking on behalf of the group, AMSG chairman and Nigeria’s Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dele Alake, thanked the President for his leadership under the Renewed Hope Agenda, which he said has strengthened Nigeria’s minerals sector, particularly in promoting local value addition, economic diversification and the empowerment of artisanal miners.
According to Alake, several African countries are now adopting similar approaches.
“You encouraged us to look at the focal point of the establishment of this group, which is to ensure that the African natural resources, especially with regards to minerals, critical matters, are localised, the beneficiation coming directly to Africans generally.
“You charged us that we should set our sails very high and ensure that local value addition is a pivot around which all the objectives of this organisation should revolve.
“So, sir, we have gone implemented your charge and we are quitted that today local value addition is reverberating all over Africa.”
Alake added that some member countries have already moved to ban the export of raw minerals as part of efforts to increase domestic value creation.
He also informed the President that AMSG members are in Abuja for the fifth edition of the African Natural Resources and Energy Investment Summit (AFNIS 2026), where leaders will advocate a new continental approach to resource management and industrial development.
The summit, themed One Africa, One Resource Vision, seeks to position Africa as a major player in the global critical minerals value chain by promoting beneficiation, industrialisation and strategic collaboration among member states.
Alake reaffirmed AMSG’s commitment to protecting Africa’s interests and increasing the value and revenue generated from the continent’s mineral resources, in line with President Tinubu’s long-standing calls for greater economic self-reliance.
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