Shettima to Africa: Stop shipping raw minerals, build industries

Africa must stop allowing its mineral resources to leave the continent as raw materials and instead use them to drive industrialisation, create jobs and improve living standards, Vice-President Kashim Shettima has said.

Shettima made the call in New York at the Third High-Level Roundtable of the Africa Minerals Strategy Group (AMSG), held on the sidelines of the 81st United Nations General Assembly.

The meeting, which focused on “From Resources to Wealth: Continental Cooperation for Mineral Value Addition,” brought together African governments, investors and stakeholders in the mining sector.

The Vice-President said Africa’s vast mineral deposits would only become truly valuable when they translated into better economic opportunities for its people.

He urged African countries to strengthen cooperation, increase local processing and develop industries around minerals that are becoming increasingly important to the global economy.

Shettima criticised the long-standing pattern under which Africa exports raw minerals and subsequently imports finished products made from those same resources at much higher prices.

He said stronger collaboration among African countries on mineral governance would improve the continent’s bargaining position and enable it to retain a larger share of the value generated by global supply chains.

The Vice-President also called on members of the strategy group to develop bankable projects capable of attracting investment into mineral processing, manufacturing and other value-adding activities.

Such investments, he said, should generate employment, accelerate industrial development and ensure that communities where minerals are extracted benefit directly from the resources found in their environment.

At the meeting, Nigeria’s Minister of Solid Minerals Development and Chairman of the AMSG, Dr Dele Alake, focused attention on the need to reform the continent’s approach to artisanal mining.

Alake said African governments should differentiate between artisanal miners who depend on mining for their livelihoods and criminal operators engaged in illegal mining.

He advocated a formal system that would allow legitimate artisanal miners to operate within the law, while maintaining sanctions against illegal mining.

“Illegal mining must remain illegal, but artisanal miners should have a structured framework that allows them to operate legally and safely,” he said.

According to Alake, many artisanal miners were breadwinners whose families depended on their earnings from mining.

He also raised concern about repeated mine-site collapses across Africa, saying the loss of lives in such incidents underscored the need for improved safety regulations and stronger oversight.

Formalising artisanal mining, he said, would give miners access to safer working environments, training, appropriate equipment, financing and government supervision.

Alake added that bringing the sector into the formal economy could strengthen mineral traceability and help curb smuggling, environmental damage and other problems associated with unregulated mining.

Kenya’s Cabinet Secretary for Mining, Blue Economy and Maritime Affairs, Hassan Ali Joho, meanwhile, called for African countries to share more geological and mineral data.

The AMSG, which has more than 30 African member countries, is seeking a stronger collective African position on mineral governance, local processing and participation in global mineral supply chains.

Among the measures being promoted by the group are harmonised mining policies, shared infrastructure, regional processing hubs and improved geological data systems.

President Bola Tinubu, who chairs the AMSG General Assembly, has previously called for greater continental cooperation to ensure Africa does not remain primarily an exporter of raw materials to industrialised economies.

Representatives from Tanzania and Chad also made presentations at the New York meeting.

Those in attendance included Minister of Foreign Affairs Bianca Odumegwu-Ojukwu; Nigeria’s Permanent Representative to the UN, Amb. Jimoh Ibrahim; Borno State Governor Babagana Zulum; Nasarawa State Governor Abdullahi Sule; Kebbi State Governor Nasir Idris; and Rivers State Governor Siminalayi Fubara.