Nigeria pushes for West African mineral route from Lagos to Dakar to tap continent's rich mineral resources

The Federal Government and the African Development Bank are advocating for Africa to exert greater control over its vast mineral resources, emphasizing the need for the continent to stop exporting raw materials and instead import finished products made from these resources.

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This call to action was made by Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dele Alake, at the Ministerial Forum on Critical Minerals, Value Chain and Beneficiation: Pathways for African Transformation, held in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, under the auspices of the African Development Bank.

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Alake proposed the establishment of a West African minerals processing corridor, stretching from Lagos to Dakar, modelled on the Lobito Corridor in Central and Southern Africa, as outlined in a statement issued by his Special Assistant on Media, Lara Owoeye-Wise, on Sunday.

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The forum brought together over 20 ministers responsible for mining, energy, industry, natural resources, and the green economy, as well as representatives from development finance institutions, international banks, and mining companies.

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Speaking at the forum, Alake urged African countries to move beyond isolated national approaches and develop a coordinated strategy for controlling, processing, and deriving greater value from the continent’s mineral wealth.

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As the pioneer chairman of the Africa Mineral Strategy Group, Alake stated that Africa’s mineral resources could deliver far greater economic benefits if countries worked together to develop shared infrastructure, regional value chains, and common standards.

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Alake emphasized the need for concrete, actionable strategies, saying, “While the mantra of value addition has ushered in an era of economic independence for mineral-producing nations, we need concrete, actionable strategies to take charge and be in full control of our natural assets to ensure total economic freedom.”

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The minister highlighted the need for African countries to achieve sovereignty not only over their mineral resources but also over the data and technical systems used to assess the value of those resources.

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He criticized the continent’s continued dependence on foreign reporting standards for mineral exploration and reserves, arguing that Africa must develop and adopt systems that reflect its own geological, environmental, and economic realities.

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Alake said, “For the overall interest of the continent, and to efficiently and effectively safeguard its resources, Africa should take charge of the coding mechanisms utilised to assess its mineral assets.”

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He advocated for the adoption of the Pan-African Resource Reporting Code, a framework established by the Africa Minerals Development Centre for the public reporting of mineral and energy resources.

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This system, he explained, would promote transparency, consistency, and ethical competence in the certification of mineral resources while taking into account the peculiar geological and environmental characteristics of African countries.

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Alake further called for the establishment of a West African minerals processing corridor, which would enable countries in the region to specialise in processing particular minerals while sharing infrastructure, investment risks, and the benefits of mineral development.

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The proposed arrangement, he said, would reduce the enormous financial burden of developing separate processing facilities in every country and promote cross-border trade and industrial cooperation.

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According to Alake, African countries need to replace competition among themselves with strategic interdependence, as the continent’s mineral resources are distributed across different countries, making regional cooperation essential to building commercially viable value chains.

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The proposed Lagos-Dakar corridor is also in line with Nigeria’s broader ambition to position itself as a regional hub for mineral processing, industrial development, and value addition.

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Alake noted that intra-African trade accounted for only about 16 per cent, compared with approximately 60 per cent among Asian countries and 70 per cent among European countries, highlighting the need for increased regional trade.

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Earlier, the President of the African Development Bank, Sidi Ould Tah, highlighted the contradictions surrounding Africa’s mineral wealth, including the contradiction between abundant investment opportunities and inadequate financing.

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The AfDB president pointed to the relatively low levels of foreign direct investment flowing into the continent, emphasizing the need for Africa to move beyond the traditional extraction and export of raw minerals.

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Both the AfDB and the Nigerian government agreed that Africa must build processing capacity, develop local industries, and create jobs around its mineral resources.

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The forum subsequently adopted the Abidjan Declaration, which placed financing at the centre of efforts to transform Africa’s solid minerals sector.

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Under the declaration, the AfDB pledged to deploy its financial instruments, capital structuring and mobilisation capacity, as well as its technical expertise, to support mineral-producing countries and attract public and private investment into the sector.

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The bank also committed to helping reduce the risks associated with strategic mining projects, financing critical infrastructure, supporting the development of bankable projects, and accelerating the creation of competitive, inclusive, and sustainable critical mineral value chains.

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The declaration further urged mineral-producing countries to develop national and regional capacities capable of creating opportunities for project financing and generating sustainable local value and employment.