For decades, Africa has dug up the world’s wealth and shipped it out as raw rock. Now the world’s biggest lenders say they want to change that, and critical minerals value chains are at the centre of the plan. Development bank funding is finally being aimed at processing and manufacturing, not just mining.
Six Banks, One Plan
In April, six multilateral development banks, including the African Development Bank and the World Bank Group, signed a joint statement in Washington. They agreed to work through a shared framework to build “diversified, resilient and responsible” supply chains across developing countries. The key shift is moving beyond digging up ore into mineral processing, manufacturing and recycling, so more value and more jobs stay at home.
The World Bank Puts Numbers on It
This week, World Bank President Ajay Banga told the Annual Meetings in Bangkok that the bank plans to multiply its critical minerals business five times within five years. It has picked 20 countries to work with and launched its first country compacts. The bank’s plan targets $19 billion in critical minerals investment over fiscal 2026 to 2030, up from $3.6 billion in the previous five years.
Washington is pushing too. US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent wants the bank to do more to de-risk mining and processing projects. The bank, for its part, says it will take a cautious approach to deep-sea mining.
What It Means for Africa
Africa holds huge reserves of cobalt, copper, lithium and manganese, yet most of the money in global mineral supply chains is made elsewhere, in refining and factories. Countries such as Congo and Zambia have long argued that exporting raw ore keeps them poor. Banks backing power lines, railways, ports and smelters could help change that.
Critics are watching, though. Analysts note that development banks have a record of favouring projects investors find easy to fund over deep industrial change. A railway to a mine is bankable. A local battery factory is harder.
The test will be simple. If critical minerals investment ends with more African processing plants, more local suppliers and more skilled jobs, the promise holds. If the ore still leaves on the same ships, nothing has changed except the press releases. For global mineral supply chains, and for the people living beside the mines, the next few years will show which it is.
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