By Francis Ajuonuma
Chairman of BUA Group, Abdul Samad Rabiu, has called on Nigerian and African governments, financiers, and private-sector leaders to urgently reposition the continent’s economies away from raw resource extraction toward large-scale processing and industrial transformation.
Rabiu made the call while speaking at a high-level mining forum convened by the Africa Finance Corporation (AFC) in Cape Town.
He commended AFC for mobilising long-term capital for Africa’s industrial, mining and real-sector development, noting that its recent rating by S&P Global, with a positive outlook, underscores the critical role of strong development finance institutions in driving Africa’s growth.
Drawing from BUA’s 16-year experience in mining and cement production, Rabiu recalled that Nigeria once relied heavily on cement imports despite abundant limestone reserves, exposing manufacturers to foreign exchange volatility and supply disruptions.
“We were spending more time chasing FX than selling cement,” he said, explaining that BUA’s decision to invest in local cement production was anchored on Nigeria’s limestone resources.
Today, he said, BUA mines and processes about 40,000 tonnes of limestone daily and produces roughly one million tonnes of cement monthly.
As a result, Nigeria has moved from a net importer of cement to a net exporter, saving billions of dollars in foreign exchange annually.
Rabiu stressed that the transformation was made possible by patient capital from development finance institutions, particularly AFC, which has supported BUA Cement and other industrial operations with more than $400 million in long-term financing.
He added that a significant portion of the facility has already been repaid, demonstrating that well-structured African industrial projects can be both developmental and commercially viable.
Extending his argument to the broader continent, Rabiu described Africa’s situation as a “structural paradox,” noting that while the continent is rich in mineral resources, most of its output is exported in raw or minimally processed form.
Gold, platinum group metals, cobalt, copper, iron ore and diamonds, he said, are largely shipped abroad for processing, only for African countries to import finished products at much higher costs.
He noted that Nigeria spends between $3 billion and $4 billion annually importing steel products, despite having over 4 billion tonnes of iron ore.
Rabiu added that a similar pattern exists in agriculture, pointing out that while four African countries produce about 75 per cent of the world’s cocoa, the continent captures only a fraction of the more than $200 billion global chocolate market.
He further observed that although Africa holds about 60 per cent of the world’s arable land, it still imports billions of dollars’ worth of food annually.
“Africa does not lack resources,” Rabiu said. “Africa lacks processing capacity, industrial scale and strategic execution.”
He urged development finance institutions to expand long-term financing for beneficiation, industrial value chains, and infrastructure, while calling on governments to implement deliberate policies that encourage local processing and discourage raw material exports when domestic capacity exists.
“Africa must move from extraction to transformation, from potential to productivity, and from resource wealth to shared prosperity,” he said.
