Nigeria and the US signed an agreement to increase Washington’s investment into the West African country’s minerals sector. The investment framework is the latest step in Abuja’s push to compete for investment dollars flowing into Africa’s minerals sector.
Governments across the continent are prioritizing local value addition instead of raw minerals exports and are focused on improving processing capacity. Nigeria, which values its minerals sector at about $700 billion, launched a grant program this year that will fund up to 70% of exploration costs by mining license-holders to identify untapped reserves of more than 44 minerals — including lithium, nickel, cobalt and rare earths — across 500 locations. Global demand for many of the minerals has soared in recent years due to their use in the energy transition or digital infrastructure that underpins AI.