By: OrePulse

Tanzania's Minister for Minerals, Anthony Mavunde, urged African countries to rely more on domestic capital to fund mineral exploration, processing and refining rather than on foreign financing, telling delegates at the Mining in Motion 2026 conference in Accra, Ghana, that heavy dependence on outside funding can limit the benefits nations draw from their mineral wealth.

Mavunde said mobilizing domestic capital for the minerals sector depends on robust policy frameworks, sustained political will and closer coordination spanning national governments, lenders and private investors. Without that coordination, he said, African countries risk continuing to depend on external financing to develop resources that belong to them.

He pointed to Tanzania's own approach as an example of how domestic financing can be mobilized. Mavunde said the government has set up a mechanism that channels 10 percent of mining-sector revenue into detailed geological surveys. Even so, he said, only about 16 percent of the country's land area has so far been surveyed to that detailed standard, a gap he linked to the policy's broader aim of weaning exploration work off donor funding.

Mavunde argued that domestic financing should not stop at exploration but extend into local processing and refining of minerals. He said expanding financing into these stages of the value chain could create jobs, build technical skills and raise export earnings through value-added products, rather than leaving African countries dependent on exports of raw, unprocessed minerals.

Mavunde also cited Tanzania's local content policy, which the government uses to boost domestic participation in mining. That policy, Mavunde said, includes initiatives to encourage the use of locally produced mining supplies and to strengthen the capabilities of Tanzanian companies working in the sector.

Other participants at the Accra conference discussed public-private partnerships, innovative financing mechanisms and infrastructure investment as additional avenues for expanding mineral-sector financing across the continent. Regional cooperation, including through the African Continental Free Trade Area, was also raised as a route for African countries to capture more value from their mineral resources through expanded intra-continental trade.

Mavunde concluded that stronger domestic financing, greater investment in mineral processing and closer collaboration among African nations could allow the continent to capture more value from its mineral resources, supporting industrialization, job creation and long-term sustainable development, rather than depending mainly on raw exports and outside capital.