Africa holds an estimated 30% of the world’s mineral reserves essential for low-carbon technologies, the backbone of solar power, electric vehicles (EVs), battery storage, green hydrogen, and geothermal energy. This vast mineral wealth is set to become even more strategic as the global energy transition accelerates.
According to the Mo Ibrahim Foundation, production of key minerals such as lithium, graphite, and cobalt is expected to surge by nearly 500% by 2050.
The push for local value addition
Despite its immense potential in critical minerals, the continent risks losing out on full profitability if it continues relying on the traditional model of extracting and exporting raw materials.
At the 2025 African Climate Summit in Addis Ababa, African leaders called for a shift toward green industrialisation built on local processing.
The summit, themed “Accelerating renewable energy, nature-based solutions, e-mobility, and scaling up…
