President Bola Tinubu has called for a global framework that benefits communities hosting critical minerals in Nigeria and Africa, ensuring value addition at the source.
This comes as Nigeria also backed the creation of global ethical standards for artificial intelligence (AI), aimed at accelerating development worldwide.
President Tinubu made the call at the third session of the 2025 Group of 20 (G20) Leaders’ Summit, held at the Johannesburg Expo Centre in South Africa, themed “A Fair and Just Future for All: Critical Minerals, Decent Work, Artificial Intelligence.”
The president, who was represented by Vice President Kashim Shettima, highlighted that for Nigeria and Africa, critical minerals are more than natural deposits, as they hold the promise of industrial transformation for the continent.
The Nigerian leader stressed that while the possession of resources alone does not guarantee prosperity, authorities and stakeholders must ensure that the extraction and trade of critical minerals are governed by fairness, transparency, and accountability.
According to a statement by Stanley Nkwocha, spokesperson to Vice President Shettima, President Tinubu emphasised that responsible extraction and trade are necessary to ensure that wealth generated in hosting communities translates into shared progress.
“Nigeria calls for a global framework that promotes value addition at the source, supports local beneficiation, and ensures that communities hosting these resources are not left behind.
“The issue before us reaches far beyond the narrow arithmetic of economics and speaks to the moral character of the world we aspire to build,” he said.
