The world is entering a new industrial era, built for critical minerals, and this presents an opportunity for Africa to transform its economies, if that transformation is undertaken strategically.

This was highlighted by UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) deputy executive secretary and chief economist Hanan Morsy, speaking at the Ministerial Forum on Critical Minerals, Value Chain and Beneficiation on July 10, in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire.

Morsy said the continent hosted about 30% of global critical mineral reserves, yet captured under 5% of the associated value-add.

“That statistic should concern us far more than the size of our reserves. It tells us that our challenge is no longer geological. It is economic and institutional.”

Therefore, she said, the focus should be on what terms Africa participated in the energy transition.

As such, she suggested three strategic shifts.

First, Morsy advocated for a move from resource nationalism to regional industrialisation.

“Many countries understandably aspire to develop domestic processing industries. But the economics of critical minerals rarely stop at national borders. Battery value chains require minerals, energy, transport infrastructure, processing capacity, manufacturing capability, finance and markets. Very few countries possess all these ingredients individually.

“Africa’s comparative advantage, therefore, lies not in 20 competing national strategies, but in integrated regional value chains under the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), where countries specialise according to their comparative advantage while collectively capturing far greater value. The success of our minerals agenda will depend less on what happens inside mines than on what happens across borders,” she said.

Second, she called for beneficiation to be redefined.

“Too often, beneficiation is interpreted narrowly as processing minerals before export. That is necessary, but it is not sufficient. The real value lies further downstream, in precursor materials, battery components, electric mobility, fertilisers, green steel, advanced manufacturing, recycling and the knowledge economy that surrounds these industries.

“If we define success only as refining minerals, we risk remaining suppliers in someone else’s industrial strategy,” Morsy said, adding that the continent’s objective should be to build industrial ecosystems, not simply processing plants.

Third, she stressed that financing must become as strategic as geology.

“Africa does not lack investment opportunities. It lacks sufficiently prepared, derisked, bankable projects capable of attracting long-term capital.

“That is why initiatives such as the Critical Minerals Acceleration Facility and the New African Financial Architecture for Development are potentially transformative. They shift the conversation from financing extraction to financing industrial ecosystems. They also recognise that African pension funds, sovereign wealth funds and development finance institutions should become central investors in Africa’s industrial future, rather than passive investors elsewhere,” Morsy explained.