African Green Minerals Strategy: An Explainer

The African Green Minerals Strategy sets out a framework to reposition Africa from a supplier of green minerals to an integrated partner in the global mineral value chains.

Executive Summary

• The African Green Minerals Strategy (AGMS), adopted by the African Union in February 2025, sets out a continental framework to harness Africa’s green minerals for sustainable development, industrialisation and electrification, promoting green technologies and sustainable development. 
• Rooted in the African Mining Vision, the SDGs, and UN recommendations, the strategy seeks to move Africa beyond raw mineral exports and into value-added participation in global mineral chains.
• Success will require political commitment, regional coordination and active collaboration across governments, the private sector and development partners.

Formally adopted during the 38^th Ordinary Session of the Assembly of the African Union (AU) in February 2025, the African Green Mineral Strategy (AGMS) is a transformative continental policy framework aimed at leveraging Africa’s vast endowment of green mineral resources to advance sustainable development.

The vision of the AGMS is “an Africa that harnesses green mineral value chains for equitable, resource-based industrialisation and electrification, promoting green technologies and sustainable development to improve the quality of life for all its people.”

African Green Minerals Strategy (Strategy)

As a complementary policy framework, the AGMS seeks to provide a coherent roadmap to foster greater value addition and green industrialisation on the African continent within the broader context of the growing global demand for green minerals. 

The AGMS is rooted in the prescriptions of the African Mining Vision (2009) as well as the Sustainable Development Goals. In addition, the AGMS supports the work of the experts convened under the United Nations Secretary General’s Panel on Critical Energy Transition Minerals and endorses its principles and actionable recommendations.

This brief explainer will outline the key aspects of the AGMS, including its rationale, strategic pillars, and major objectives for transforming Africa’s mineral resources into a catalyst for sustainable development.

Objectives

Illustration of Africa’s Green Minerals Strategy

The AGMS is structured around four pillars designed to realise its vision. Each pillar supports a set of integrated outcomes to achieve resource-based development and regional integration. The pillars are as follows:

1. Advancing Mineral Development

This pillar focuses on improving geological knowledge, attracting investment, and creating the enabling infrastructure and policy environment aligned with the objectives of the AMV. Actions to support this pillar include: improving relationships between government ministries, strengthening geological institutions, raising finance to close infrastructure gaps, and establishing a Green Mineral Value Chain Investment Fund.

2. Developing Human and Technological Capabilities

This pillar focuses on building the relevant skills and technological base to leverage green mineral opportunities through targeted support for education, training and research. Actions to support this pillar include: supporting educational institutions such as universities, working with industry to identify the necessary skills for the mining sector, and promoting innovation hubs such as the Centre of Excellence for Batteries.

3. Building Strategic Value Chains 

This pillar focuses on leveraging the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) to build regional and continental mineral value chains as means of enhancing value addition and promoting regional integration. Actions to support this pillar include: strengthening supply chains for mining and mineral processing, identifying priority value chains such as electric two and three-wheeled vehicles, and enhancing industrial and trade competitiveness through targeted incentives and regional content requirements.

4. Promoting Prudent Mineral Stewardship 

This pillar focuses on addressing the environmental, social and governance (ESG) concerns of mineral extraction, emphasising responsible natural resource governance. Actions to support this pillar include: undertaking reforms to harmonise national legal and institutional frameworks with the African Mineral Governance Framework (AMGF) and implementing regional environmental approaches that promote and share best practice in mineral stewardship across member states.

Implementation

To support the implementation of the pillars described above, the AGMS has proposed several implementation mechanisms to ensure that no member state is left behind. The main proposed mechanisms are outlined below:

• Local African Content: All major mining countries are encouraged to introduce local content requirements for procuring capital goods, consumables and services. These requirements should include a continent-wide recognition of content sourced within Africa under the cumulation clause in the AfCFTA.
• Common External Tariff: A common external tariff of ≤10% on imports of green mineral value chain products and exports of unprocessed key green minerals is proposed.
• Green Mineral Value Chain Investment Fund: The establishment of a green mineral value chain investment fund is proposed to address the prohibitively high cost of capital for many African countries. Ideally, the fund should be capitalised by African development finance institutions, international development partners, and energy transition funds.
• Critical Skills and Innovation Funding: It is proposed that member states harmonise their respective green mineral mining license regulations to require all investors to spend a minimum of 5% of payroll on local STEM skills development and 1% of sales revenue on local research, development and innovation.
• Infant Industry Protection: Protection measures are proposed for member states with a GDP per capita below the continental average to impose temporary infant industry tariffs of up to 10% for a maximum of seven years.

Priority Value Chains and Investment Opportunities 

The mining and processing of green minerals constitutes a foundational pillar of Africa’s green industrialisation agenda. To this end, the AGMS highlights a series of priority value chains that present noteworthy investment opportunities. The following domains offer concrete pathways for greater value addition, regional integration, technological innovation, and inclusive economic development. The priority value chains identified are specified below: 

• Development and expansion of mining supply chains
• Manufacturing of renewable energy equipment and infrastructure
• Production of green hydrogen and the development of related fuel cell technologies
• Manufacturing of energy storage systems, including advanced battery technologies
• Production of light electric vehicles, mainly two- and three-wheelers
• Provision of electrification solutions to address energy access challenges
• Development of enabling enviroment to support the continent’s energy transition

Power Shift Africa Webinar on Unpacking the African Green Mineral Strategy

Conclusion

The AGMS recognises that Africa must move beyond raw mineral exports and build strong, integrated value chains that foster local beneficiation, job creation and economic diversification. To this end, the AGMS presents an ambitious strategy to reposition Africa from a supplier of green minerals to an integrated partner in global mineral value chains. However, realising the vision of the AGMS will require sustained political commitment, enhanced institutional coordination, and sustained engagement with all stakeholders. 

In short, the vision of the AGMS cannot be achieved without strong coordination among African institutions as well as the support of multilateral bodies and international development partners. Given the nature of the policy proposals, regional coordination is essential to harmonise the efforts of member states. Moreover, translating the initiatives of the AGMS into successful implementation will require the active engagement of national governments, the private sector, civil society, and a broad range of stakeholders.