Africa’s 30% critical mineral wealth yields just 3% of global exports as weak production stifles growth

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Africa accounts for only three percent of global exports despite holding nearly 30 per cent of the world's critical mineral ...

Africa accounts for only three percent of global exports despite holding nearly 30 per cent of the world’s critical mineral reserves, highlighting the continent’s persistent failure to translate its abundant natural resources into productive capacity, industrial development and economic power.

The World Trade Organization (WTO) has said Africa must move beyond the exportation of raw materials and strengthen local processing, manufacturing, technology and regional value chains if it is to secure a more influential position in the global economy.

Jean-Yves Remy, Senior Adviser to the WTO Chair, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, made this known on Monday in Abuja at a conference themed AfCFTA and the Geoeconomics of African States: Integration, Power and Structural Transformation, organised by the African Trade Group (ATG) of the WTO Chairs Programme and hosted by Ngozi Egbuna, International Center for Regional Integration and Trade Research (ICRITR).

Remy said Africa’s significant mineral endowment had not translated into corresponding global trade influence, stressing that possession of natural resources alone does not guarantee economic prosperity.

According to her, Africa holds nearly 30 per cent of global reserves of critical minerals, including cobalt, lithium, manganese, copper, nickel and graphite. The Democratic Republic of Congo alone accounts for more than 70 per cent of global cobalt production, while South Africa, Gabon and Ghana collectively account for over 60 per cent of global manganese production.

Despite these resources, she noted that the continent contributes just three per cent of global exports.

“Natural resources, we therefore know, do not automatically translate into economic power. Value addition does. Productive capacity does. Technology, finance, standards and access to markets do,” he said.

She argued that Africa’s development priorities should be defined not merely by the markets it can access or the raw materials it can export, but by its capacity to…

“Market…

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