President Bola Tinubu has called on African nations to take ownership of their mineral wealth by financing development locally and asserting collective influence in global supply chains.
Gatekeepers News reports that speaking through Vice President Kashim Shettima at the Second Africa Minerals Strategy Group (AMSG) High-Level Roundtable on Critical Minerals Development, held alongside the 80th United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York, Tinubu said Africa must “safeguard its sovereignty” through bold action.
“We must take the bull by the horns in financing our future. Never again shall we wait for capital to trickle in. With sovereign funds, blended vehicles, and innovative tools like the Africa Mineral Token, Africa shall finance Africa,” he declared.
Tinubu stressed that minerals such as cobalt, lithium, graphite, gold, and rare earths must be guarded “not as fragmented states but as one continental bloc, wielding collective power in global supply chains.”
The president outlined four priorities for Africa’s mineral future:
• Climb the Value Chain: Stop exporting raw minerals and build industries on African soil through beneficiation and green manufacturing.
• Own Africa’s Data: Use the African Minerals and Energy Resource Classification (AMREC) and Pan-African Resource Reporting Code (PARC) to secure geological data ownership.
• Accelerate Exploration: Strengthen geological agencies and conduct nationwide surveys through AMSG cooperation.
• Finance Africa’s Future: Mobilize sovereign wealth and new financial instruments, including the Africa Mineral Token.
He commended countries such as Zimbabwe, Gabon, and Kenya for enforcing export bans on raw minerals and pledged that Nigeria would fast-track similar reforms under the Renewed Hope Agenda.
“As Chair of this Roundtable, I pledge Nigeria’s unflinching commitment to ensuring that AMSG fulfils its promise of catalyzing a mineral-led renaissance. Let us rise from this dialogue with a communiqué of clarity, a framework for action, and a spirit of unity,” Tinubu said.
Nigeria’s minister of solid minerals development, Dr. Dele Alake, who chaired the session, emphasized cohesion and transparency, insisting that minerals are “indispensable for global sustainable development” and central to Africa’s industrialization.
UN Assistant Secretary-General and UNDP Africa Director, Ahunna Eziakonwa, urged leaders to resist exploitation and focus on technology transfer, beneficiation, and job creation. Similarly, EU Commissioner for International Partnerships, Jozef Stkela, highlighted the bloc’s Critical Raw Materials Act (2024), under which it has signed 14 partnerships on raw material value chains, including four in Africa.
On the sidelines of UNGA, Shettima also engaged global investors at a roundtable hosted by the Business Council for International Understanding (BCIU), in partnership with Flour Mills of Nigeria and other conglomerates. He assured investors that Tinubu’s reforms had repositioned Nigeria for stability and growth.
“In President Tinubu, you have an ally who speaks your language, the language of business. Nigeria has turned the corner; there has never been a better time to invest,” Shettima said.
He also held talks with Austrian Chancellor Christian Stocker, with both leaders agreeing to strengthen bilateral ties and explore new areas of cooperation.
