Leveraging Africa’s Raw Materials For Industrialisation, Economic Growth

Africa is no doubt a land of immense human and natural resources. It should, or could, have been a global power in industrialisation by adding value to its vast raw materials through processing them into finished goods.

However, the current state of Africa’s industrialisation is not encouraging news, as the continent remains stuck in a captive mentality, exporting its unprocessed raw materials to other parts of the world due to a lack of capacity for value addition, which is necessary to create jobs and diversify the continent’s economies.

The Nigerian government, through the Raw Materials Research and Development Council (RMRDC), is building experts’ capacity to develop skills that will transform the continent’s raw materials through massive investment in indigenous technology.

Nigeria demonstrated this leadership during the just-concluded second edition of the African Raw Materials Summit (ARMS, 2026) in Abuja, with the theme “From African Feedstock to African Factories,” which drew government officials, industry experts, and development partners.

At the centre of this move is the need for stronger policies, investment, research and regional cooperation to transform Africa’s natural resources into finished products.

Nigeria has taken a significant step in this direction with a proposed bill requiring a minimum of 30 per cent value addition to raw materials before export, which is awaiting President Bola Tinubu’s assent following a review by the Ministry of Justice and further legislative action. The proposed legislation was part of efforts to support the President’s ambition of growing Nigeria’s economy to one trillion dollars.

Speaking during the momentous occasion, Nigeria’s Minister of Innovation, Science and Technology, Dr Kingsley Tochukwu Udeh, said that local processing and the commercialisation of research and innovation were critical to achieving the target.

“Because if we spend the whole of the day talking, it will still not address the challenges or proceed to action that we need to address the challenges,” the minister said, even as he admonished stakeholders to prioritise implementation.

Udeh also disclosed that the Federal Executive Council had approved the establishment of a National Research and Innovation Development Fund, with the relevant bill before the National Assembly.

To ensure that the summit produced measurable results, the minister called for a review of commitments made at the first edition, the establishment of national and continental value-addition targets, an active summit secretariat, and sustained engagement among governments, researchers, manufacturers and investors.

“Please let there be no third African Raw Materials Summit if we do not collate all the things that we have said that we ought to do, all the calls to action,” he advised.

The Director-General of the Raw Materials Research and Development Council (RMRDC), Professor Nnanyelugo Ike-Muonso, said the era of African countries exporting unprocessed resources while importing finished products should be over.

He said, “We dug the cobalt, but imported the batteries. We harvested 69% of the world’s cocoa, but imported the chocolates. We mined the lithium, but bought back the electric vehicles, we exported our soil’s riches, and with them, we exported our jobs, our wealth, and the dreams of our youth.”

He proposed five action areas: a continental raw materials value-addition compact, an industrial investment pipeline, a raw materials intelligence platform, regional value chains linked to the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), and partnerships to transfer African research and technology into local industries.

The RMRDC boss also highlighted the council’s work on locally adapted processing machinery and the Nigerian Integrated Information Statistical System for Raw Materials and Products (NISRAM), designed to map raw material deposits, processing capacity and manufacturing demand, even as he called on stakeholders to focus on concrete industrial agreements.

“The world is waiting to see what Africa will do with its vast riches. And the answer must come from us, right here, right now,” he said.

The Chairman of the Senate Committee on Science and Technology, Senator Aminu Abbas, assured that the proposed 30% value-addition bill would be passed within the next two to three weeks.

He expressed optimism that processing raw materials locally would create employment opportunities across manufacturing and related industries.

“You can imagine the number of employees if you process 30 per cent of all our raw materials within Africa,” he said.

Representative of the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) to Nigeria and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), Ambassador Philbert Johnson, warned that Africa’s dependence on unprocessed raw-material exports will continue to hinder its industrial development unless the continent changes the situation.

“The challenge before us is clear, Africa must move from exporting raw materials to producing value-added goods,” Johnson said.

He noted that UNIDO was supporting Nigeria’s industrial development through its Programme for Country Partnership, including technical assistance for agricultural and mineral value chains.

Johnson urged participants to develop practical recommendations to address infrastructure gaps, technology constraints, financing, and policy implementation.

The Director-General of the Nigerian Geological Survey Agency, Professor Olusegun Ige, called for stronger collaboration between the Ministry of Solid Minerals Development and other ministries that depend on mineral resources.

“Before we start the processing, we need to know where these things are. Then we need to bring them out onto the surface. Then we began to ask for a processing method,” he said.

In his remarks, Sudan’s Minister of Minerals, Professor Nour Al-Daem Taha, called for cooperation to curb mineral smuggling and strengthen training, technology transfer, and workforce development.

“We need Africa to work together, to cooperate, and to share all our knowledge and business for our people and our continent,” he said.

We hope the summit doesn’t end in the big halls and conference centres, but instead becomes a forum for new thinking that creates an enduring system to strengthen partnerships through completed projects.

Africa’s natural resource wealth must deliver greater economic benefits through investment, technology, infrastructure, research and consistent policy implementation to achieve this goal. This also requires reliable infrastructure, workforce development, regional trade partnerships and investment in agricultural and mineral value chains.

Africa also needs to strengthen resource efficiency, develop recycling technology and the use of industrial by-products and biomass in new production processes.