The President/Chief Executive Officer of the Regional Maritime Development Bank, Mr Adeniran Aderogba, has decried the structural and financial barriers hindering Africa’s mining sector, urging African nations to confront them.
According to a statement over the weekend, Aderogba stated this recently while speaking during a high-level panel discussion at the African Development Bank Annual Meetings recently concluded in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire.
Speaking during the panel themed ‘Mobilising domestic capital for Africa’s mining sector’, Aderogba painted a sobering picture of a region brimming with mineral wealth yet stalled by systemic weaknesses that prevent meaningful development and value creation.
He highlighted four persistent constraints of the sector’s growth, which include “a crippling shortage of early-stage capital, the absence of quality geological data, weak development activity, and a chronic lack of integrated infrastructure”.
The RMDB boss stated that these issues were not merely technical bottlenecks but foundational deficiencies that continue to blunt Africa’s competitiveness and discourage long-term investment.
“Africa’s mineral wealth is not in question; our challenge is transforming potential into productivity. We are facing a systemic shortage of early-stage capital that discourages exploration, limits geological mapping, and stalls project preparation. Without addressing these constraints, the full value of our resources will remain trapped underground,” Aderogba said.
He lamented that while financial institutions on the continent are increasingly interested in value-added ventures like processing and manufacturing, the upstream segment, where mining projects are initiated and developed, remains largely unfunded due to its perceived risk.
According to him, local financial institutions are often reluctant to fund early-stage exploration because of uncertain returns and limited mechanisms to mitigate risk.
He proposed that African governments and central banks adopt a more assertive role in shaping a viable investment environment, including deploying credit enhancement tools and fiscal incentives.
To bridge the financing gap, Aderogba called on the need for the introduction of mining bonds, mineral royalty securitisation, and blended finance models that combine public and private funds to de-risk investments.
He also emphasised the importance of public-private partnerships and the urgent need to strengthen project preparation capacity across the continent.
“Africa must not rely solely on foreign capital. We need to build a resilient domestic financial architecture that supports the full mining value chain from exploration to beneficiation and beyond. Finance ministries must provide fiscal incentives while central banks support investment-friendly monetary policies and guarantee frameworks,” he said.
Aderogba said Africa is central to this transition, stressing that the continent is home to two-thirds of global cobalt reserves, 30 per cent of lithium, 20 per cent of graphite, and over 30 per cent of manganese.
“This places Africa not at the periphery but at the heart of the global energy transition,” Aderogba stated.
He highlighted Guinea’s vast bauxite reserves, Gabon’s dominance in manganese production, and the Democratic Republic of Congo’s 70 per cent share of global cobalt supply as key pillars of this opportunity.
However, he warned that unless Africa shifts from being a raw material exporter to a hub of industrial transformation, it risks repeating the historical pattern of resource dependency.
“Extracting minerals is not enough; the real value lies in processing them locally, creating industries, jobs, and self-sustaining economies. To facilitate intra-African trade, minerals must benefit from major value addition, giving rise to rapid industrialisation. The goods produced through that industrialisation, such as vehicles, batteries, components, and machinery, can then be traded across African borders and efficiently moved through our major maritime channels,” he added.
