Abdul Samad Rabiu, founder and chairman of BUA Group, called for a fundamental shift in Africa’s development model, urging leaders and financiers to move Africa beyond exporting raw materials to large-scale industrial processing and value addition.
Rabiu delivered his message as the special guest of honor at the African Finance Corporation Forum held during Mining Indaba 2026. The forum brought together policymakers, investors and industry executives to discuss the future of mining and physical sector growth across Africa.
The Nigerian billionaire praised the African Finance Corporation for mobilizing long-term finance to support industrial expansion, noting that strong development finance institutions are central to reshaping Africa’s economic trajectory. He pointed to the company’s recent credit rating upgrade with a positive outlook as evidence of institutional strength and investor confidence.
Drawing on BUA Group’s own experience, Rabiu recalled how the company made a strategic decision more than 16 years ago to stop importing cement and instead invest heavily in domestic production. At the time, Nigeria imported cement even though it had rich reserves of limestone.
He said this transformation requires conviction and patient capital, given the large investments and long conceptualization times involved in mining and cement production. The central challenge, he said, was not the availability of resources, but the willingness to invest in local production capacity.
Currently, BUA mines and processes about 40,000 tons of limestone every day and produces about 1 million tons of cement every month, Rabiu said. This transformation has enabled Nigeria to move from dependence on cement imports to the status of a net exporter, saving billions of dollars in foreign exchange every year.
Mr. Rabiu credited long-term financing from development financial institutions, particularly the African Finance Corporation, for supporting BUA’s industrial growth. He disclosed that AFC has provided over $400 million in financing to BUA Cement and related businesses.
He added that the majority of these facilities have already been repaid, demonstrating that industrial projects in Africa can deliver both development impact and commercial benefits if built properly.
Extending the discussion, Rabiu explained what he called a continent-wide structural paradox. Although Africa remains rich in mineral and agricultural resources, most goods continue to be exported in unprocessed or minimally processed form.
He cited gold, cobalt, copper, iron ore, diamonds and cocoa as examples where Africa supplies raw materials to the world but with limited downstream value. In his view, the continent does not lack natural resources, but suffers from limited processing capacity and insufficient industrial scale.
The same imbalance is seen in agriculture, he said, with Africa importing billions of dollars worth of food annually despite controlling a significant portion of the world’s arable land.
Rabiu called for concerted action between governments, development finance institutions and private investors. He called on policymakers to create incentives for local processing and invest in critical infrastructure such as power generation and transportation networks.
He said industrialization requires careful planning and consistent execution, adding that countries that achieved industrial growth did so by deliberate planning and not by chance.
Mr. Rabiu concluded that Africa’s future prosperity depends on a combination of private enterprise, patient capital, and supportive policies to move Africa from extraction to transformation and from latent economic growth to shared economic growth.
