Nigeria Solid Minerals Development Minister Dr Oladele Henry Alake has welcomed his re-election as the chairperson of the Africa Minerals Strategy Group (AMSG) and reiterated one of the group’s core mandates of local beneficiation.

Alake’s re-election took place at the 2026 AGM in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, one of the side events of the Future Minerals Forum (FMF).

The FMF is a yearly global critical minerals platform held in Saudi Arabia.

The AMSG is high-level collaboration to advance Africa’s minerals sector, established on the sidelines of the 2024 FMF. Alake was first elected as AMSG chairperson at the 2024 FMF.

As part of its mandate, the AMSG was constituted to promote exploration, extraction, production, local beneficiation (value addition) and commercialisation; ensure a sustainable, transparent and secure supply of critical minerals, while protecting the environment; improve the quality of life of the African population; drive the socioeconomic transformation and prosperity of Africa; and support the global energy transition.

Alake informed that the 2026 AGM meeting formalised the governance structure of the AMSG, including his re-election, as well as the formal election of other members of the executive to drive the group’s agenda for the next two to three years.

In an interview on the sidelines of the 2026 FMF, Alake said that the AMSG endeavours to provide a platform for Africans to “speak with one voice” regarding the enhancement the continent’s minerals and to ensure a judicious exploitation and efficient use of the revenue accruing from minerals for the welfare of the region’s people.

“In short, we don’t want Africa to be merely the producers of raw materials, while other developed countries use our raw materials to develop their infrastructure. We want local value addition to be located in Africa,” he emphasised.

Alake underscored the importance of local value addition in the mining industry, highlighting that this created employment and catalysed the local economy.

“It enhances beneficiation to the local environment, where the investors operate, where the mines are and, when you combine all of this, it [results in an] increase in the contribution of the sector to GDP,” he enthused.

Alake lauded “tremendous progress” by the AMSG over the past two years, citing that this value-addition policy was now being adopted across Africa, with several governments announcing bans on the exportation of raw minerals.

“That can only serve to catalyse the African local economy, which is our overall objective. So we are very happy with the [FMF] conference,” he acclaimed.

South Africa is one of the founding members of the AMSG.