Folalumi Alaran in Abuja
Africa must strengthen its influence over the global pricing and value determination of its mineral resources by developing stronger market intelligence, processing capacity, mineral data and commercial systems, the Executive Director of Women in Mining Africa (WiM-Africa), Dr. Comfort Asokoro-Ogaji, has said.
Asokoro-Ogaji is expected to advance the position when she participates as a roundtable speaker at the Shanghai Metals Expo 2026 in China in November.
The roundtable, convened by Shanghai Metals Market (SMM), will focus on ‘Eastern Pricing 2.0: Integrating Futures, Physical Markets, Industry and Finance for the Next Stage of Global Metals Pricing.’
According to Asokoro-Ogaji, the changing global metals market presents Africa with an opportunity to reconsider its position in the systems through which minerals are traded, priced and ultimately converted into economic value.
“Africa cannot build pricing power simply by having minerals beneath its soil. We must put our African mineral ecosystem together — our producers, geological and market data, processing capacity, standards, laboratories, commodity exchanges, financial institutions and regional value chains — if we want to become more relevant in the markets where value is determined,” she said.
She said the continent’s mineral strategy should move beyond negotiating better terms for the export of raw materials to developing the capacity to process, aggregate, certify, finance and trade minerals within stronger African value chains.
The issue is becoming increasingly important as global competition intensifies for copper, lithium, cobalt, nickel, rare earths and other minerals considered critical to industrialisation, advanced manufacturing and the energy transition.
Asokoro-Ogaji said Africa’s challenge was not merely to determine whether pricing influence was shifting from established Western markets towards emerging Eastern markets, but to ensure that the continent becomes a meaningful participant in the evolving global pricing architecture.
She said stronger African participation would require reliable geological and market data, mineral testing and certification systems, traceability, access to finance, regional trading platforms, processing facilities and stronger links between African producers and international buyers.
She added that the issue was particularly important for women-led and smaller mining enterprises, which often face barriers to credible market information, mineral testing, product specifications, finance and direct access to international buyers.
According to her, without these systems, many African producers would remain confined to the mine-gate level of the value chain, while a larger share of the value generated from their minerals would continue to be captured elsewhere.
She called for deeper cooperation among African governments, mining companies, commodity exchanges, financial institutions, geological institutions, laboratories, processors, traders, research organisations, women-led enterprises and regional bodies to strengthen the continent’s mineral market infrastructure.
Asokoro-Ogaji’s participation in the Shanghai roundtable follows the expansion of strategic cooperation between WiM-Africa and Shanghai Metals Market, providing a platform for engagement on mining, metals, battery minerals, market connectivity, knowledge exchange, technology and industry development.
She said Africa’s long-term objective should be to participate across the entire mineral value chain, from geological data and extraction to processing, finance, trading and value creation.
“Africa has mineral power. The next challenge is building the market architecture capable of translating that endowment into greater economic and pricing influence,” she said.