Abdul Samad Rabiu, founder and chairman of BUA Group, called for a decisive shift in Africa’s development strategy, arguing that governments, financial institutions and the private sector should move Africa from raw material extraction to large-scale industrial processing and value-added production.
Rabiu was speaking as a special guest at the African Finance Corporation (AFC) Forum, themed ‘Mining Indaba 2026’, where African leaders, policy makers, financiers and industry executives discuss the future of mining, industrialization and real sector development on the continent, and praised the role of the AFC in mobilizing long-term finance for Africa’s industrial sector. Rabiu said the leadership of financial institutions and the recent positive outlook in S&P Global Ratings underscores the importance of strong development financial institutions in shaping Africa’s growth trajectory.
Citing BUA Group’s experience, Rabiu detailed the company’s decision more than 16 years ago to move from importing cement to local production in Nigeria, despite the capital concentration and long establishment period associated with mining and heavy industry.
He said, “At that time, Nigeria was importing cement even though we had an abundance of limestone. We were spending more time chasing foreign exchange than selling cement. The real question was not whether the resources existed, but whether there was enough belief to stop imports and start local production.”
Currently, BUA mines and processes about 40,000 tons of limestone every day and produces about 1 million tons of cement every month, he said. He added that this change would help Nigeria move from being a cement importer to a net exporter, saving billions of dollars in foreign exchange every year.
Rabiu stressed that such transformation would not have been possible without patient long-term financing from DFIs, especially the African Finance Corporation, which has supported BUA’s cement and industrial operations with over $400 million in loans, and said that a significant portion of these facilities have already been repaid, demonstrating that well-structured African industrial projects can not only be developed, but also commercially viable and recyclable.
He said that despite the presence of abundant natural resources, Africa is one of the most resource-rich regions in the world and, despite what he described as a “structural paradox”, “yet exports the majority of its minerals and agricultural products in raw or minimally processed form”.
He said Africa supplies much of the world’s raw materials but captures only a fraction of the value created downstream, citing examples such as gold, cobalt, copper, iron ore, diamonds and cocoa.
“Africa is not lacking in resources,” he said, adding: “What Africa lacks is processing power, industrial scale and disciplined execution.”
He argued that the same challenges extend beyond mining to agriculture, as Africa continues to import billions of dollars worth of food every year, despite having the majority of the world’s arable land.
The BUA chief called for concerted action between governments, DFIs and the private sector, calling on DFIs to expand long-term financing for benefits and industrial value chains, while governments adopt intentional policies that encourage local processing and encourage investment in power, transport and industrial infrastructure.
“Industrialization does not happen by chance,” he said, “Countries that have achieved industrialization have done so by design, not by chance.Africa must do the same.”
Africa’s opportunity lies in aligning private enterprise, patient capital and supportive policies to move the continent from extraction to transformation and from potential to shared prosperity.
