Call for urgent shift from raw exports to value addition dominates Kwapong Memorial Lecture
Development policy experts have sounded a strong warning to African leaders to urgently assert control over the continent’s vast mineral resources and redirect them toward industrialisation and inclusive development.
The call was made at this year’s Professor Alexander Adum Kwapong Annual Lecture held at the University of Ghana, Legon, where participants examined Africa’s position in the rapidly evolving global minerals and energy landscape.
Madam Sheila Khama, Sustainable Development Policy Advisor and former Director at the African Development Bank, cautioned that Africa’s mineral wealth—often portrayed as a blessing—could soon become irrelevant as global technologies evolve.
“The value of our cobalt, lithium, and nickel is dictated not by abundance, but by innovation,” she explained. “Man-made substitutes and seabed mining could soon render Africa’s so-called mineral dominance meaningless.”
She said Africa’s continued dependence on exporting unprocessed minerals, without developing its own industrial ecosystem, left it at the mercy of external powers that determine global market demand.
“We do not consume what we produce,” she lamented. “Until Africa develops the industries that can use these minerals, we will remain suppliers in a global system built on our raw materials but not for our benefit.”
Ms Khama also cited governance weaknesses—such as over-politicisation, poor infrastructure, and lack of collaboration between academia and industry—as barriers to progress.
Mr Zia Choudhury, United Nations Resident Coordinator for Ghana, said Africa’s critical minerals positioned it at the centre of the global green energy transition but warned that the continent risked being sidelined again if leaders failed to act strategically.
“Africa must not repeat the mistakes of the past,” he urged. “Our future depends on creating domestic industries, integrated value chains, and policies that make us equal players, not just suppliers.”
Professor Nana Aba Appiah Amfo, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ghana, called for a paradigm shift from extraction to transformation, stressing that governance and transparency must underpin any new mineral strategy.
“The future of Africa’s critical minerals will be determined by whether we allow a new scramble led by external powers or build a renaissance grounded in African innovation and ownership,” she said.
The lecture, held in honour of the late Professor Alexander Adum Kwapong, Ghana’s first African Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ghana, served as a platform for scholars, policymakers, and international partners to reimagine the continent’s approach to sustainable resource management.
