Folalumi Alaran in Abuja
Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dr. Dele Alake, on Wednesday urged African countries to move beyond the export of raw minerals and focus on value addition, industrialisation, and regional collaboration to maximise the benefits of the continent’s vast natural resources.
Alake made the call in Abuja during a press conference ahead of the 5th African Natural Resources and Energy Investment Summit in Abuja.
The minister, represented by Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Nigeria Solid Minerals Company, Martins Imonitie, said Africa must leverage its mineral wealth to drive economic transformation, job creation, and long-term prosperity.
He stated, “Africa must move from being merely a source of raw materials production to becoming a centre of value creation, industrialisation and shared prosperity.
“Our resources must become catalysts for economic transformation, job creation, technological advancement, infrastructure development and long-term wealth creation for African people.”
According to Alake, the summit, themed, “One Africa, One Resource Vision,” comes at a critical period when global demand for critical minerals is rising, nations are repositioning to secure supply chains, and the global energy transition is creating fresh opportunities for resource-rich countries.
Alake said the summit would bring together government officials, investors, financiers, mining and energy companies, technology providers, geoscience experts, project developers, and policymakers from across Africa and beyond.
He added that countries expected at the event included Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Uganda, South Sudan, Somalia, Liberia, and Mauritania.
The minister stated that AFNIS, which started five years ago as a platform for dialogue among governments, investors and industry stakeholders, had evolved into one of Africa’s leading forums for discussions on mining, energy, industrialisation, and sustainable development.
He said the theme of this year’s summit reflected the growing need for African countries to adopt a coordinated approach to issues, such as critical minerals, energy infrastructure, regional value chains, project financing, and technology transfer.
Speaking earlier, Director of Strategy and Platform Development, Core International, Archibald Troko, disclosed that AFNIS had attracted more than $600m in investments over the last four years.
Troko said efforts were ongoing to attract additional development partners and de-risk investments in the mining and energy sectors to encourage greater participation by local investors.
“We will continue to seek development partners to help de-risk the sector so that local investors can also begin to take their share,” he said.