As competition for critical minerals intensifies and African economies seek new ways to finance energy infrastructure and industrial growth, the African Natural Resources & Energy Investment Summit, which is at the intersection of policy, capital and project development, has maintained that Africa must move beyond possessing strategic resources to building the industries, partnerships and investment systems needed to capture their value. Africa’s natural resources are increasingly central to the global economy. Copper, lithium, graphite, tantalum, rare earth elements and other minerals are essential to electricity networks, renewable energy systems, electric vehicles, advanced electronics and digital infrastructure. The continent also possesses…
Author: David UC Grant
The African Union has launched the Africa Credit Rating Agency in Mauritius, creating the continent’s first pan-African credit-rating institution in a move aimed at improving how African risk is assessed, priced and understood by global capital markets. The launch of the Africa Credit Rating Agency (AfCRA) in Port Louis marks the culmination of a process that began when African leaders endorsed the creation of the institution in 2018. Designed as an independent, private-sector-driven and self-funded institution, AfCRA will provide credit assessments of African sovereigns, sub-sovereigns, financial institutions, companies and other entities. The agency may also rate non-African entities where appropriate.…
The global artificial intelligence race is usually described in terms of chips, data centres, electricity and computing power. But beneath the servers and semiconductor systems sits another layer of infrastructure that is attracting far less attention: critical minerals. Among them is tantalum; a relatively obscure metal whose importance to advanced electronics gives Nigeria an unexpected position in the emerging AI supply chain. An information gathering study, drawing on 2025 production estimates from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and the World Bank’s World Development Report 2026, identifies tantalum alongside gallium and rare earths as among the minerals whose concentrated global production…
Africa’s minerals debate is increasingly moving beyond the question of what the continent has underground to a more consequential question: what can African countries build around those resources before they enter global markets? That question was at the centre of the Africa Minerals Strategy Group (AMSG) Ministerial & CEO Roundtable, held in Cairo on 27 September 2026 as part of the official programme of the Egypt Mining Forum 2026. Bringing together African mining ministers and senior government officials, mining executives, investors, financial institutions and other sector stakeholders, the high-level meeting examined how Africa can move from geological potential and mineral…
Burkina Faso has inaugurated its first gold refinery, marking a significant step in the country’s effort to move beyond raw mineral exports and capture a larger share of the economic value generated by its gold resources. The facility, known as RAFFINOR-BF, was inaugurated in Ouagadougou on 28 September by President Ibrahim Traoré. Built at a cost of more than 11 billion CFA francs (about $19 million), the refinery has an initial annual refining capacity of 164 tonnes of gold, with the government targeting an eventual capacity of 515 tonnes. The scale of the planned facility is notable. Burkina Faso produced…
At a time when African countries are confronting a fundamental question over how to convert mineral wealth into lasting economic power, Kenya has put forward a proposition that reaches beyond national mining policy: Africa must begin treating its mineral resources as a continental industrial asset. Delivering a goodwill message from the Government of Kenya at the African Natural Resources & Energy Investment Summit (AFNIS), Mariam Abdullahi, representing Kenya’s Cabinet Secretary for Mining, Blue Economy and Maritime Affairs, H.E. Hassan Joho, positioned Kenya alongside Nigeria in a shared agenda around mineral value addition, beneficiation, local content and African resource sovereignty. Her…
On the 21st of September 2026, African mining ministers, private sector leaders, and top global investors gathered in New York City on the margins of the 81st Session of the United Nations General Assembly for the 3rd Africa Minerals Strategy Group (AMSG) High-Level Roundtable on Critical Minerals Development in Africa. Convened under the theme of transitioning from strategy to execution, the gathering culminated in a historic turning point for the continent’s natural resources sector: the signing of the Continental Integration and Economic Assurance Declaration (CIEAD) by participating AMSG member ministers. The Roundtable was opened under the patronage of His Excellency…
Framework signed at UNGA 81 focuses on geological data, exploration, processing, infrastructure and technical capacity as Nigeria seeks to turn mineral potential into investable projects and domestic industrial value. Nigeria and the United States have signed a framework agreement to deepen American investment and technical cooperation in Nigeria’s mining sector, opening a new phase in bilateral engagement around the country’s estimated $700 billion mineral resource base. The agreement was signed at the Nigeria Mission House in New York by Nigeria’s Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dele Alake, and US Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau, on the sidelines of the…
At UNGA 81, Nigeria pushes for continental cooperation, local processing and integrated mineral value chains as Africa seeks greater control over the economic value of its resources President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has called for a renewed continental effort to end Africa’s dependence on the export of raw minerals, arguing that the continent must move from supplying mineral resources to building the processing, manufacturing and technology industries around them. Represented by Vice President Kashim Shettima at the third Africa Minerals Strategy Group (AMSG) High-Level Roundtable on Critical Minerals Development in Africa in New York, Tinubu called for greater cooperation among African…
In a wide-ranging CEO conversation hosted by AFNIS Insights, AFNIS Founding Partner Suleiman Zakari and Abubakar Sadiq Omar mni, Managing Director and CEO of Steron Mining/Steron Energy, explored a question that goes beyond the technical language of geology, licences and commodities: What happens when Africans begin to see their mineral resources not simply as things to be extracted, but as assets to be understood, preserved, valued and transformed? The conversation offered a compelling answer: Africa’s resource challenge is not only about what lies underground. It is also about awareness, ownership, infrastructure, technical capacity, capital and the willingness to think beyond…