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Africa is making a renewed bid to capture more value from the minerals powering the global energy transition, but the continent’s leaders know the challenge is not geological – it is structural. At the Ministerial Forum on Critical Minerals, Value Chains, and Beneficiation in Abidjan, ministers and continental institutions argued that Africa must decisively break with the old extraction model, which has long involved exporting raw minerals while importing finished products at a premium.

The forum, convened by the African Development Bank Group (AfDB), brought together ministers responsible for mines, energy, industry and natural resources, along with representatives of the African Union, UNECA, the AfCFTA Secretariat, development banks and global partners. Their message was clear: Africa’s critical minerals, including cobalt, lithium, graphite, rare earths, copper, manganese and nickel, must underpin regional value chains, not merely serve as raw inputs for industries outside the continent.

Africa holds roughly 30% of the world’s critical mineral reserves. Yet it captures only a negligible share of the value these reserves generate. The minerals that power electric-vehicle batteries, renewable-energy systems, and advanced manufacturing are processed overwhelmingly outside the continent. The result is a familiar pattern in which jobs, technology, industrial capacity, and strategic leverage migrate offshore.

Forum participants argued that this is not merely an economic inefficiency; rather, it is a strategic vulnerability. Fragmented national approaches weaken Africa’s bargaining power within global mining value chains, forcing countries to negotiate individually rather than collectively. UNECA’s Deputy Executive Secretary Hanan Morsy put the stakes bluntly: “Opportunities don’t transform economies. Strategy does.”

She argued that Africa’s comparative advantage lies not in competing national plans but in an integrated value chain within the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), where countries specialise according to their strengths and collectively capture far greater value.

The Abidjan declaration recognised that Africa cannot build competitive processing industries without addressing foundational constraints, including energy deficits, weak transport corridors, limited geological data, inconsistent regulations, and governance gaps that deter investors.

The presence of senior officials from the U.S. Treasury and Japan’s Ministry of Finance underscored not only the geopolitical interest in Africa’s minerals but also the governance expectations that accompany it. U.S. Treasury Deputy Secretary Jeremy Wiggins warned that Africa’s mineral opportunity will only be durable if regulatory regimes are transparent and predictable. “Good governance is not an obstacle to investment. It is what makes it endurable,” he said.

The forum also highlighted the emerging New African Financial Architecture for Development (NAFAD), which aims to mobilise domestic capital, strengthen risk-sharing mechanisms and reduce borrowing costs. Kenyan President William Ruto positioned ATIDI – the continent’s political risk insurer – as a central pillar of this architecture, calling for its recapitalisation to $2 billion and pledging to increase Kenya’s shareholding.

AfDB President Sidi Ould Tah reinforced this direction by announcing a fivefold increase in the Bank’s equity participation in ATIDI. He argued that Africa’s challenge is not a shortage of capital or opportunities, but a persistent mispricing of African risk, a problem that institutions like ATIDI can help correct.

The forum’s closing declaration, delivered by Côte d’Ivoire’s Minister of Mines, Petroleum and Energy, Mamadou Sangafowa Coulibaly, was unequivocal: “Africa is ready to make critical minerals a lever for industrial transformation.” However, readiness is not capability.

Africa’s ability to build regional value chains will depend on coordinated industrial policy rather than fragmented national strategies, cross-border energy and transport infrastructure, and transparent governance and regulatory stability. The continent will also require technology transfer and local skills development, traceability systems that meet global standards, and bankable projects that attract private capital.

The AfDB was repeatedly cited as the institution best placed to help countries prepare such projects and mobilise large-scale financing.

The Abidjan forum signals a rhetorical shift, suggesting that African leaders are no longer content to be suppliers of raw minerals in the global race for green energy. But the continent has made similar declarations before. The real test will be whether governments can translate political consensus into coordinated action, enabling Africa to finally capture more value from the minerals that power the world’s future industries.