President Bola Tinubu will lead a renewed push for Africa to retain more value from its mineral resources when he chairs a high-level summit on critical minerals in New York next month.
The Third High-Level Roundtable on Critical Minerals Development in Africa, convened by the Africa Minerals Strategy Group (AMSG), will take place in Manhattan on September 21, 2026, on the sidelines of the 81st session of the United Nations General Assembly.
Tinubu, who chairs the AMSG General Assembly, is expected to lead discussions involving African leaders and government officials, ministers, global investors, development finance institutions, multilateral organisations, and executives from the mining, technology and logistics sectors.
In a statement on Sunday, the AMSG said the summit, themed “From Resources to Wealth: Continental Cooperation for Mineral Value Addition,” comes amid growing global competition for critical minerals used in electric vehicles, renewable energy, advanced manufacturing, artificial intelligence, digital infrastructure and defence technologies.
The group said the meeting would reinforce Africa’s determination to place critical minerals at the centre of its industrial, economic and geopolitical agenda.
Africa has significant deposits of minerals including lithium, copper, cobalt, graphite, manganese and rare earth elements. However, much of the continent’s mineral wealth has historically been exported as raw or minimally processed materials, allowing other regions to capture a larger share of the value generated through refining, manufacturing and finished products.
The New York summit is expected to focus on changing that pattern by encouraging greater mineral processing, manufacturing and integration of value chains within Africa.
According to the AMSG, discussions will centre on moving African economies beyond the traditional extract-and-export model, while attracting transformative investment, strengthening continental cooperation and increasing Africa’s share of the economic value generated by its mineral resources.
The meeting will also advance the Mutual Assured Development framework launched at the African Natural Resources and Energy Investment Summit held in Abuja earlier in 2026.
African leaders and policymakers are expected to unveil a proposed Continental Integration and Economic Assurance Declaration (CIEAD) as part of efforts to establish a coordinated framework for cooperation on critical minerals.
The proposed declaration will address policy coordination, investment mobilisation, local value addition, supply-chain security and measures to strengthen Africa’s negotiating position in the global minerals market.
A key component of the initiative is the proposed CIEAD Finance Window, which is intended to mobilise capital for mineral processing, infrastructure, technology and other investments needed to develop competitive mineral value chains across the continent.
