Africa’s 30% critical minerals vital for AI, energy boom – IMF

Africa’s 30 per cent share of global critical mineral reserves positions the continent to benefit from surging demand for artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure and clean energy technologies, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has said.

The Fund said the continent could also accelerate growth by adopting and scaling AI, mobilising domestic savings and implementing reforms to improve its business environment and attract investment.

Mr Zeine Zeidane, Director of the IMF’s African Department, said this at a briefing on the October 2026 Regional Economic Outlook Update for Sub-Saharan Africa in Bangkok on Thursday.

“We’ve done work in the past that shows that Africa has 30 per cent of the stock of critical minerals in the continent. So, many of these countries on the continent could benefit from that.

“All the countries that export critical minerals will be benefiting from the energy transition, the energy needs of AI, and the technology itself. The Democratic Republic of Congo is one of them, but it’s not only DRC,” he said.

Mr Zeidane said AI could improve productivity in agriculture, education, healthcare and government services, helping to close efficiency gaps.

The report estimated that adopting, adapting and scaling AI across Africa could increase economic growth by more than four percentage points over 10 years.

It also said addressing half the continent’s governance and business environment gaps could raise its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by more than 20 per cent over a decade.

Mr Zeidane, however, cautioned that mineral wealth alone would not guarantee prosperity without reforms to mobilise capital and improve the investment climate.

He called for stronger mobilisation of domestic savings and their channelling into productive sectors to support investment and job creation.

“Africa could be tomorrow the engine of global growth, for that, it needs to mobilise more capital to grow. Capital is not only coming from outside, but it will also come from inside, so you can better mobilise the domestic savings in the continent,” he said.

The report projected economic growth in Sub-Saharan Africa at 4.5 per cent in both 2026 and 2027, 0.2 percentage points higher than forecast in April, despite the conflict in the Middle East and a challenging global environment.

It said the region entered the current crisis with stronger buffers, having achieved near-balanced fiscal positions and stabilised debt by the end of 2025.

The report attributed the region’s resilience partly to earlier debt restructurings and policy adjustments, including subsidy and exchange rate reforms in Ethiopia and Nigeria, and structural reforms in South Africa that strengthened macroeconomic stability.