The global conversation about Africa and minerals tends to follow a familiar script: vast untapped wealth, geopolitical competition and the promise of a green-energy windfall.
But is this framing serving Africa’s interests, or someone else’s?
Bright Simons, founder of mPedigree and an ALI West Africa Fellow, has spent over a decade questioning the assumptions behind the headlines. In his latest piece for The Africa Report, he cuts through the rhetoric to ask a fundamental question: what does “critical” actually mean when viewed from Africa’s own development priorities?
Bright also led an Action Roundtable discussion at the ALI Africa Impact Forum 2025 on Africa’s economic empowerment, where his presentation on “Africa’s Critical Minerals & Green Transition” prompted a robust discussion on the new scramble for the continent’s minerals and the tariff deals now being negotiated around them.
The article is a provocation for anyone involved in policy, investment or leadership on the continent—a call to move beyond slogans and towards strategies that centre African industrialisation, regional cooperation and institutional credibility.
Read the full article here: “Critical for whom? How experts bungled Africa’s minerals strategy” on The Africa Report.
