By: The nation

Africa is the world’s leading minerals destination. Yet, it remains the poorest continent, contributing less than 3% GDP to the global economy. This economic paradox has elicited intense academic research and media attention in the 21st century. As some observers point out, Africa’s inability to locally process its abundant minerals has stagnated its industrialisation and undermined its economic and political independence.

On January 9, 2024, the Africa Minerals Strategy Group (AMSG) was formed to explore possible ways of deploying the continent’s vast minerals for economic self-sufficiency. This would entail ending a historical cycle of feeding foreign industries with raw minerals and importing processed products for local consumption. Breaking the jinx of economic dependency would also require maximising exploration, building capacity for local processing, optimising commercialisation, securing supply chains, and creating value addition in the mining sector of African economies.

Other regional blocs are also vigorously implementing policies aimed at optimising utilisation of minerals to avoid economic dependences. In Europe, the European Critical Raw Materials Board, established under the European Critical Raw Materials Act, serves this purpose. It targets 10% domestic extraction, 40% processing, and 25% recycling of raw materials by 2030.

Similarly, there are a few intergovernmental policies initiated to coordinate and maximise mineral resources for sustainable economic development in Asia, notably the ASEAN Minerals Development Vision 2045 (AMDV). Among other objectives, the AMDV is in place to promote joint exploration and research to maximise minerals security and manufacturing.

What is obtainable on the global scene is the application of economic statecraft, using critical minerals and their governing policies for relevance in global commerce and geopolitics, thereby reducing reliance on potentially hostile minerals suppliers. Fortunately, Africa has joined the train.

The AMSG was birthed at a time the global economy is witnessing a shift towards clean energy, digital Innovation, and defence technologies, all supported by critical minerals and rare earths that are in abundant supply on the African continent. It gives the resource-rich, but economically backward continent the opportunity to conduct trade relations with a bargaining power in the global energy transition. It becomes imperative, therefore, to assess how Nigeria has keyed into the founding objectives of the AMSG which it currently chairs.

Prior to May 2023 when President Bola Tinubu came to power, some policies were already being implemented to unlock the economic potentials of the mining sector. However, the pace of progress remained slow due to insufficient administrative vigour to achieve set goals. What makes the difference under the Tinubu administration has been a redirected focus that aligns well with the AMSG’s roadmap for optimal utilisation of minerals in Africa. Essentially, the Nigerian government’s efforts have been geared towards securing minerals, creating value addition, and attracting investments in the mining sector, which is now referred to as the “new oil”.

In the present dispensation, the federal government has been vigorously tackling illegal mining and unlicensed operations, the twin challenges bedevilling the mining sector over the years. Over 300 illegal miners were arrested in 2024, with 150 being prosecuted and nine already convicted at the time. So far, the government has recovered over 98 illegal mining sites and still counting.

On March 1, 2024, the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) Mining Marshals Unit was officially inaugurated to combat illegal mining and protect critical national solid minerals assets across the country. A year later, in March 2025, N2.5 billion was approved for the procurement of satellite gadgets to provide real-time monitoring of mining sites. Security experts have since hailed the shift from manual patrols to digital monitoring of mining sites as a step in the right direction. According to Dele Alake, Nigeria’s Minister for Solid Minerals Development, deploying technology would significantly curb illegal mining and block revenue leakages.

Consistent with the AMSG’s policy on empowering local miners, the government, through the Federal Ministry of Solid Minerals Development, has successfully incorporated artisanal miners into the value chain of the mining sector. For instance, it has formalised thousands of local miners into 250 mining cooperatives. These cooperatives have been absorbed into the formal economy to reduce illegal mining, improve safety, and increase output. After issuing small-scale licences to artisanal miners, the government has created the Artisanal and Small-Scale Mining Development Fund to enable them benefit from training and access loans with much more ease than previously.

Under the Tinubu administration, the Presidential Artisanal Gold Mining Initiative has been strengthened with the National Gold Purchase Programme (NGPP) to bolster Nigeria’s foreign reserve, using local resources. The Solid Minerals Development Fund (SMDF) is mandated to source and refine gold locally, ensuring that it meets the London Bullion Market Association’s standards. As of February, the Central Bank of Nigeria reported that Nigeria’s gold reserve had risen to $3.5 billion. With an efficient implementation of its gold purchase programme, the government seeks to build a “gold shield” against inflation and reduce the country’s over-reliance on foreign currency.

Nigeria’s compliance with Africa’s shared vision on the utilisation of solid minerals for economic self-sufficiency is largely driven by its Minerals Value Chain Regulations. Introduced in 2024, the policy makes local processing a requirement for obtaining mining licences. It provides that all raw minerals must have been 30% processed locally before they are exported.

In furtherance of its mandatory local processing policy, the federal government has made substantial investments in the solid minerals sector of the economy. In May 2024, it inaugurated a $100 million lithium battery plant (Avatar Energy) in Nassarawa, with a daily production capacity of 4,000 tonnes and a potential to create 4,000 jobs. Other investments in lithium include the siting of a refinery valued at $600 million at the Niger-Kaduna border and a $200 million plant on the outskirts of Abuja.

The federal government’s renewed drive in the solid minerals sector has seen a significant rise in the number of registered companies, quantity of minerals mined, and in royalties paid into national coffers. By the end of 2024, the solid minerals sector had generated over N38 billion in revenue, a phenomenal increase from the N6 billion realised in the previous year. This has attracted a rising investor confidence as global economic giants like the US, UK, Saudi Arabia and the UAE have all expressed interest in Nigeria’s lithium and other critical minerals. In the second quarter of 2025 alone, the mining cadastral office responsible for licensing and processing applications had received over 10,000 applications from local and foreign investors.

The predicted economic expansion of African economies in 2026 by global institutions like the United Nations and the African Development Bank is largely informed by the boom in critical minerals. In Nigeria, President Tinubu’s “Renewed Hope” agenda has been sufficiently demonstrated in the mining sector, which has grown in leaps and bounds in less than three years. With increased exploitation of its over 48 commercially viable minerals, Nigeria is strategically positioning itself as a regional leader in the global transition to green energy. On the domestic front, the ongoing transformation represents the take-off stage for industrialisation which naturally supports a manufacturing economy for job creation and economic diversification. It goes without saying that the government of President Tinubu is on track in the mining sector.