Africa’s mineral wealth must fuel its own factories, not the world’s

Africa is home to some of the world’s most significant reserves of critical minerals; cobalt, lithium, manganese, graphite, and rare earth elements, which are vital to the global energy transition. Yet despite this endowment, the continent continues to operate at the margins of global value chains. The bulk of its mineral exports remain unprocessed, destined for processing hubs in Asia and Europe, where the real value is captured through beneficiation, manufacturing, and innovation.

This structural imbalance is not new. In countries like the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which accounts for around 75% of global cobalt production, nearly all output is exported in raw form. Zimbabwe’s lithium, Ghana’s bauxite, and Zambia’s copper follow the same pattern. The result is a massive loss in potential economic value: where raw bauxite fetches about $70 per ton, refined aluminium sells for over $2,300. This disconnect highlights the urgency of rethinking Africa’s role in the critical minerals value chain, not merely as a supplier of inputs but as a co-architect of industrial systems.

Policy responses have emerged beneficiation mandates, special economic zones, and localisation requirements, but often within fragmented national frameworks. They are rarely aligned with the continent’s diverse industrial capabilities or regional market dynamics. This disjointedness undermines scale, weakens competitiveness, and fails to generate durable economic multipliers. The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) provides a historic opportunity to change this.

From extraction to integration: The case for a regional approach

Africa’s current trade architecture remains structurally extractive. Intra-African trade, despite reaching US$220 billion in 2024, still accounts for just 14.4% of the continent’s total trade, and remains spatially concentrated in Southern and West Africa. South Africa alone drives nearly a fifth of all intra-African trade, while Nigeria, despite growing export volumes, continues to rely heavily on crude oil. What’s missing is a continent-wide industrial logic that links mineral extraction to value-added production in a coherent, regionally distributed system.

The key to unlocking this potential lies in a regional hub-and-spoke model for beneficiation and manufacturing. In this model, countries are not expected to develop full value chains independently. Instead, they contribute according to their comparative advantages: mineral reserves, processing capacity, energy resources, logistics infrastructure, or technical expertise. This model allows for distributed manufacturing while preserving scale and competitiveness.

For instance, South Africa may serve as a beneficiation hub for platinum group metals, leveraging its advanced metallurgy sector. Zambia and the DRC can anchor upstream copper and cobalt extraction, while Mozambique contributes energy and port infrastructure. Ghana and Guinea can support bauxite and aluminium value chains. This functional complementarity rather than duplication, creates a networked production ecosystem with the scale needed to serve regional and global markets.

The AfCFTA as a platform for structural change

The AfCFTA, now ratified by 48 countries and with seven actively trading under its provisions, represents a shift from political agreement to practical implementation. However, its full potential remains constrained by three interlinked challenges.

First, the production base across much of Africa remains misaligned with AfCFTA’s liberalisation goals. Without a strong manufacturing sector, tariff reductions alone will not deliver structural transformation.

Second, the soft infrastructure necessary to facilitate trade, customs systems, harmonised standards, and logistics platforms, is concentrated in a few countries, leaving many others unable to capitalise on the agreement.

Third, and most crucially, industrial policy remains overly national in scope. There is limited coordination of investment regimes, sector priorities, or infrastructure plans across borders. Without regional alignment, the AfCFTA risks reinforcing old patterns: countries trading the same commodities while importing manufactured goods from outside the continent.

Infrastructure and investment: Building the foundations

Industrial integration cannot happen without robust infrastructure. Transport costs in Africa are among the highest globally. Poor road density, limited rail networks, and inefficient ports all add to the cost of moving goods. For landlocked countries, this challenge is existential. In many cases, logistics expenses account for up to 40% of the final price of goods. No industrial strategy can succeed without addressing these physical constraints.

Equally important is the development of regional energy grids, shared certification systems, and integrated digital platforms. These investments do not merely support trade; they enable value chains to form and function. For example, aligning energy supply from Mozambique or Ethiopia with processing zones in Southern Africa could lower beneficiation costs and attract investment.

Lessons from other regions

Africa is not the first region to grapple with the challenge of aligning national interests with regional industrial ambition. The European Union offers a high-capacity example, with fiscal instruments and policy frameworks designed to bridge industrial disparities. ASEAN, by contrast, demonstrates how strategic corporate investment and light-touch coordination can create transnational production systems. Africa must find its own pathway, drawing lessons from both models while responding to its unique geography and institutional realities.

The Gulf Cooperation Council’s integration around petrochemicals and the Greater Mekong Subregion’s corridor-based industrial zones also offer useful templates for Africa’s mineral-rich regions. Each of these examples points to one lesson: industrial integration must be deliberately built through investment, governance, and aligned incentives.

A new industrial future for Africa

Africa’s critical mineral endowment offers more than export earnings, it offers the foundation for a new industrial future. But realising that future will require bold regional thinking and coordinated action. The hub-and-spoke model provides a framework for doing so. It builds on Africa’s strengths, addresses its constraints, and prioritises collective value capture over fragmented ambition.

In this model, no country is left behind. Each contributes to and benefits from the collective industrial system. Beneficiation happens where it makes economic sense; manufacturing scales where infrastructure allows; and trade flows along corridors designed for efficiency and impact.

This is not merely a vision. It is an imperative. Africa cannot afford to remain a warehouse of raw materials while the rest of the world captures the value of its resources. It must become an architect of its own future, by integrating its economies, aligning its industrial strategies, and investing in the infrastructure of regional production.

Africa’s minerals are the starting point. But its industrial destiny lies in what it builds with them.