UN Chief Urges Africa to Guard Mineral Wealth Amid Global Scramble
Africa must no longer serve as a quarry for the world’s green transition, UN Secretary-General António Guterres said on Saturday, urging leaders at the African Union summit to secure fair value chains for the continent’s critical minerals as global powers intensify competition for supplies.
“Africa must benefit from the resources of Africa. No more exploitation. No more plundering,” Guterres told heads of state in Addis Ababa, placing control over mineral wealth at the centre of Africa’s development agenda.
His remarks come at a time when the United States has stepped up diplomatic and commercial engagement across Africa to secure access to rare earths and battery metals critical for electric vehicles, semiconductors and defence technologies.
Washington has shown particular interest in supplies from Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, which together account for a significant share of the world’s cobalt and other strategic minerals.
Beyond Rwanda and Congo, countries such as Zambia, Namibia, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Tanzania and Madagascar have also drawn growing attention from Western and Asian investors seeking lithium, graphite, manganese and rare earth elements.
Africa holds some of the world’s largest untapped reserves of minerals vital to the energy transition.
Yet most are exported in raw or minimally processed form, leaving higher-value refining and manufacturing to other regions.
Guterres warned that the race for green minerals must not replicate the extractive patterns of the past, where African economies remained dependent on volatile commodity exports while value addition, jobs and technology transfer occurred abroad.
Instead, he called for investment in local processing industries, regional supply chains and infrastructure to ensure that mineral wealth drives industrialisation and sustainable growth on the continent.
The UN chief also linked the minerals debate to broader reforms of the global financial system, arguing that high borrowing costs and limited access to concessional finance constrain African governments’ ability to invest in beneficiation and climate resilience.
“This is 2026, not 1946,” he said, in a pointed reference to the post-war institutions that continue to shape global finance. He urged greater African representation in international financial institutions and expanded lending capacity from multilateral development banks.
On climate, Guterres reiterated that Africa contributes only a small fraction of global emissions yet faces disproportionate impacts from droughts, floods and rising temperatures.
He renewed calls for developed nations to increase adaptation funding and deliver long-promised climate finance.
African leaders at the summit echoed the demand for a reset in economic relations, saying the global shift to clean energy presents a historic opportunity for the continent to move up the value chain rather than remain a supplier of raw materials.
Global demand for critical minerals is projected to surge in coming years and control over Africa’s vast reserves is emerging as both an economic opportunity and a geopolitical flashpoint and leaders argue that this must be shaped on Africa’s terms.
gandae@businessdayafrica.org