Business

Over 1,000 Delegates Storm Abuja for Maiden Africa Raw Materials Summit

Published

6 months ago

May 15, 2025

…As Nigeria Champions Africa’s Goal of 30% Value Addition on Raw Materials
By Joel Ajayi

In a strategic move to boost value addition across the continent’s natural resources, over 1,000 high-level delegates, experts, and investors from across Africa will converge in Abuja for the inaugural Africa Raw Materials Summit, where Nigeria will take the lead in championing a continental target of 30% value addition on raw materials.

The landmark two-day summit, themed “Shaping the Future of Africa’s Resource Landscape,” is scheduled to take place from May 20 to 22, 2025. It aims to position Nigeria as a catalyst in driving industrial transformation and economic diversification across Africa.

Speaking at a world press conference on Thursday in Abuja, the Director-General of the Raw Materials Research and Development Council (RMRDC), Prof. Nnanyelugo Ike-Muonso, emphasized that the summit is designed to address pressing challenges in the continent’s raw materials industries. These include value addition, industrial growth strategies, investment promotion, and sustainable regional collaboration to enhance Africa’s standing in the global raw materials market.

He noted that while Africa is richly endowed with natural resources, the continent continues to grapple with the inability to harness these assets for sustainable development.

“The summit will provide a vital platform for dialogue among policymakers, researchers, and industry leaders to develop actionable strategies for transforming Africa’s raw materials into high-value products that can compete globally,” Ike-Muonso said.

He described the summit as more than a high-level event, calling it “a continental call to action—a moment for Africa to rise and claim its rightful place as a global center for industrial innovation, value creation, and resource sovereignty.”

Highlighting Africa’s strategic advantage, he said, “Africa is abundantly endowed with over 30% of the world’s strategic raw materials—from agricultural commodities to critical minerals such as lithium, cobalt, graphite, and rare earth elements. Yet, paradoxically, our economies remain trapped at the bottom of global value chains due to our heavy reliance on exporting unprocessed raw materials.”

Calling the current economic model unsustainable, Ike-Muonso argued that it deprives African countries of jobs, foreign exchange, and industrial growth, while also stifling the continent’s potential for technological leadership.
“The time has come for a bold, coordinated shift from extraction to transformation, from exporting potential to industrializing value, and from economic vulnerability to continental resilience,” he declared.

Central to this transformation is the proposed 30 Percent Value Addition Mandate Bill, which the RMRDC has championed and which is currently under consideration at Nigeria’s National Assembly.

“This bill mandates that no less than 30% of all raw materials must be locally processed before export. It is not just a policy—it is strategic economic common sense and a form of national economic defence,” he said.

According to Ike-Muonso, the bill aims to curb capital flight, stimulate local processing industries, create sustainable jobs, enhance global competitiveness, and establish a strong, self-reliant African industrial base.

He explained that the summit will serve as the ideal platform for African stakeholders to deliberate on the initiative, adopt its core principles, and promote similar policies across the continent.

The summit, he said, has three key objectives: Mobilizing a continental consensus on the urgency of industrializing Africa’s resource base through innovation and value addition: Deepening alignment with the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) and strengthening regional trade and industrial linkages and Forging actionable partnerships among governments, private sector players, researchers, and development financiers to drive sustainable transformation.

Over 1,000 confirmed participants are expected, including senior ministers and high-ranking officials from Ghana, South Africa, and several other countries, as well as key representatives from their ministries, departments, and agencies.
Key expected outcomes of the summit include:A Pan-African Declaration on Raw Materials Industrialization; Regional support for the 30% Value Addition Mandate and similar national initiatives; The launch of continental investment frameworks for beneficiation and industrial infrastructure.

He also assured that all necessary arrangements have been made to ensure the safety and success of the summit.

“All protocols and logistics have been activated and are being meticulously coordinated. The summit venue has been fully secured and prepared to meet the highest international standards. Every detail, from registration and accreditation to hospitality and technical support, has been carefully planned and is being professionally executed,” he concluded.

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Business

TAJBank Emerges Nigeria’s Biggest Non-Interest Bank

Published

1 week ago

October 23, 2025

The Gleamer

Cyril Ogar

After five years of operations in Nigeria’s rapidly evolving non-interest banking (NIB) space, TAJBank Limited has become the biggest player in the NIB subsector based on its total assets and gross earnings values.

Disclosing this during his paper presentation on the key performance indices in the non-interest banking space over the past few years at a seminar organized by Leaders Corporate Services with the theme “Roles of Non-Interest Banks In SMEs’ Financing” for SME entrepreneurs yesterday in Abuja, an investment expert, Mr. Olabode Akeredolu-Ale, maintained that based on the non-interest banks’ approved financial statements for the half year 2025, TAJBank currently remained the biggest in terms of its total assets.

The expert, a chartered stockbroker, specifically confirmed that his recent investment researches on the NIBs and their financial performances showed that TAJBank, with its total assets rising to N1.017 trillion in half year 2025 up from N953.098 billion as of December 2024, which is about N53 billion higher than the nearest NIB’s assets, now ranked top in the banking subsector.

According to him, TAJBank’s gross earnings for H1 2025 also surged to N53.752 billion from N32.86 billion as of December 2024, representing a 64% growth, and higher than the nearest NIB’s gross earnings in the period under review.

This is even as he disclosed that on the NIBs’ earnings per share during the half year, TAJBank reported N61.36 kobo earnings per share, about 92% higher than the earnings per share of the next NIB during the period.

Akeredolu-Ale, who is also a chartered accountant, clarified: “The figures I am reeling out here on the NIBs are sourced from the banking and capital market regulatory institutions’ platforms, which anyone can access to verify.

“I am part of this event because of my research interest in non-interest banking and how the players in the subsector in Nigeria can help to leverage their competencies in innovation and ethical banking to support our MSMEs.

“Today, the MSMEs cannot access DMBs’ loans due to high lending rates and other inclement macroeconomic factors. This is where I think the NIBs have become very crucial to Nigeria’s economic growth.

“Overall, my findings on the NIBs indicated that they are all trying their best with non-interest loans to support entrepreneurs, particularly the MSMEs owners. I have advised those of them at this seminar to explore the cost-friendly financing options of the NIBs to grow their businesses by opening accounts with the NIBs”, the expert added.

Another speaker at the event, Benjamin Chukwudi, also commended the NIBs for their “catalytic roles in helping SMEs to access interest-free loans and providing them the needed financial management advisory, which have been helping them in sustaining their operations in the face of rising cost of doing business in the country.”

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