African countries rich in critical minerals and several development partners gathered on July 10 in Abidjan for a ministerial conference dedicated to redefining Africa’s place in the global economy of strategic resources.
The meeting brought together African ministers in charge of Mines, Energy, Industry, Green Economy and Natural Resources, alongside representatives from the African Union Commission, the Secretariat of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, regional development banks, financial institutions and international investors.
At the heart of the debates were local value creation, development financing, and the emergence of regional value chains capable of meeting the world’s exploding demand. These were the points on which the president of the African Development Bank (AfDB) insisted.
At the opening of the proceedings, Sidi Ould Tah indeed called for a fundamental overhaul of Africa’s natural resource management, and to emphasize a paradigm shift. “The objective of this conference is to effect a paradigm shift and establish a new partnership for the African continent, so that it can better manage its resources and directly benefit its people,” he said.
For the president of the AfDB, the priority must be given to the local processing of raw materials to generate more added value on the continent. He also advocated for reform of development financing.
“We estimate that in Africa, we have more than 100 development finance institutions (DFIs), but their combined balance sheet represents only 1% of the world’s DFIs’ balance sheets. It is crucial to consolidate and recapitalize these institutions,” he further argued. Also, for him, the solution lies in building resilient infrastructure and creating local value added.
Africa holds, for its part, about 30% of the world’s reserves of the most strategic minerals for the energy transition, notably cobalt, lithium, graphite, rare earths, platinum-group metals, copper, manganese, and nickel. This is valued at nearly $29.5 trillion, more than eight times Africa’s annual GDP and about 20% of global resources.
Among these resources, about $8.6 trillion in reserves remain untapped, while global demand is expected to grow dramatically by 2040, according to forecasts.
