Segun Awofadeji in Bauchi
The Chief Executive Officer of the World Energy Council Nigeria, Mr. Bala Wunti, has urged the federal government to ensure that Nigeria’s 44 critical minerals are developed at home into factories, jobs and industrial prosperity rather than exported raw, warning that the country must not repeat the costly mistake it made with crude oil.
Wunti spoke in New York on September 21 at the 2026 Concordia Annual Summit held at the Sheraton New York Times Square alongside the United Nations General Assembly, where world leaders, investors and CEOs gathered to discuss shifting global supply chains.
This is contained in a Press release issued by Abubakar Al-Sadique, chief communication officer, Bala Wunti Support Organisation (BWSO) which was made available to Journalists in Bauchi over the weekend.
He was a panelist on the session titled Rare Currency: Critical Minerals in a Shifting Global Economy, which examined America’s growing dependence on imported minerals and China’s dominance of global processing, alongside Alix Steel of DrivePath Advisors, Steven Fox of Veracity Worldwide and Scott Monteith of Avalon Advanced Materials.
Wunti, who previously served as Chief Upstream Investment Officer at the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited and has over three decades of experience developing and financing large energy systems, said Africa must move beyond being a mere source of raw materials to become a competitive processing and manufacturing partner in the emerging global economy.
The CEO of World Energy Council Nigeria warned that for half a century Nigeria exported crude oil and imported refined petroleum products at higher prices, a model that created poverty rather than prosperity for the country, and that the same pattern must not be repeated with lithium, cobalt, graphite and other rare earth elements.
According to him, a temporary arrangement to export mineral concentrate may be commercially necessary, but the permanent export of raw minerals amounts to colonial economics.
He stressed that the African countries that develop projects and enter the market fastest will have the advantage, because the real prize is not in exporting tonnage but in value addition through processing, factories, employment and industrialisation on the continent.
Linking energy security directly to mineral security, Wunti noted that the world is moving from an era where energy was priced in barrels to an era where it will be priced in kilograms of strategic minerals, and that whether those kilograms are controlled by allies or adversaries will define the next global industrial order.
He explained that the urgency, need and speed of action are now essential because closing the supply gap has become a compelling national priority for the United States, yet domestic production takes decades, allies are indispensable, and a considerable distance remains between policy ambition and commercial reality.
No country, Wunti said, can secure its energy, defence systems, electricity grid and artificial intelligence infrastructure alone while depending on a single country for processing.
On why Nigeria has not fully monetised its vast mineral potential, Wunti said the central problem is the difference between mineral potential and an investable project, l noting that Nigeria had geological indications but not proven reserves supported by JORC compliant data, and had good policies but not clearly defined projects, adding that investors invest in projects, not potential.
He said attracting private capital into the mining sector requires reliable geological data, clearly defined projects, enabling infrastructure, predictable regulation, credible developers and viable routes to market, and that the Nigerian Solid Minerals Company now provides the flagship platform to transform resources from mere potential into bankable projects with clear commercial propositions.
Wunti added that rare earth elements are not necessarily rare in the ground, they are rare in the market, and bringing them to market requires capital and technology.
Wunti also welcomed the United States’ move to introduce a price floor of 110 dollars per kilogram for critical minerals, saying it would provide commercial certainty and reduce investment risks, allowing African projects to move from geological potential to commercial viability.
He said the lesson for Nigeria is price, not pitch, and that with a credible price guarantee, Nigeria can attract processing facilities, create jobs for its people and retain greater value from its resources, ensuring that its 44 minerals create jobs and not export poverty.