The most urgent priority facing Africa today is to move from being a supplier of raw materials to becoming a value creator. Hitherto, the continent has exported its resources, to be processed elsewhere, which has left the continent poor. So highlighted Nigerian Solid Minerals Development Minister Dr Oladele Alake, in a keynote speech on Wednesday at the Africa Mining Week 2025 conference, being held at the Cape Town International Convention Centre, and delivered on his behalf by Nigerian Solid Minerals Department Permanent Secretary Engr Yusuf Faruk Yabo. (Alake was unable to attend because Wednesday was also the sixty-fifth anniversary of Nigerian independence.)

Africa must transform its natural resources into a platform for industrial growth and development, he asserted. This was the policy of Nigeria.

“No country can do this alone,” he affirmed. “We must do this together.”

Industrialisation was not just about the beneficiation of minerals. It was about wider industrialisation, about jobs, about prosperity. To become a value creator, Africa needed to build five strategic pillars, he said.

The first of these was beneficiation and value addition. This required the establishment of processing plants, including for rare earth minerals, as well as refineries for other metals.

The second pillar was infrastructure and energy. Without reliable power and digital linkages, he pointed out, industrialisation was impossible.

Third, was technology and skills. Africa needed investment in research, technological education and innovation.

The fourth pillar was responsible and sustainable mining. The continent could not industrialise at the expense of its people or the planet.

And the fifth pillar was investment and policy alignment across the continent. For example, in Nigeria, they were reforming regulations and fostering strong public-private partnerships.

Working together, African countries would be able to negotiate better terms of trade. By the middle of this century, Africa could be the centre of the global minerals sector and also exporting manufactured goods. “Collaboration is more urgent than ever before,” he stressed. Nigeria was committed to working together with other African countries and with investors.

Regarding the Nigerian situation in particular, he reported that the country was blessed with 44 commercially viable minerals, spread across the country. It was developing partnerships to exploit, refine and beneficiate these.

Beneficiation, he asserted, was not just a necessity; it was a moral obligation. It was about sovereignty as well as development.