BUA chief to private sector: Break from raw materials export to processing

Founder and Executive Chairman of BUA Group, Abdul Samad Rabiu, has called for a decisive shift in Africa’s development strategy, urging that governments, financiers and the private sector should move the continent from raw material extraction to large-scale industrial processing and value addition.

Rabiu, who spoke as Special Guest of Honour at the Africa Finance Corporation (AFC) forum, themed  Mining Indaba 2026, where African leaders, policymakers, financiers, and industry executives gathered to discuss the future of mining, industrialisation, and real sector development on the continent, praised  AFC for its role in mobilising long-term capital for Africa’s industrial sectors.  Rabiu said that the institution’s leadership and recent S&P Global rating with a positive outlook, underscored the importance of strong development finance institutions in shaping Africa’s growth trajectory.

Citing BUA Group’s experience, Rabiu recounted the company’s decision over 16 years ago, to transition from cement importation to local production in Nigeria, despite the capital intensity and long gestation periods associated with mining and heavy industry.

He said: “At the time, Nigeria was importing cement despite being richly endowed with 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 conviction to stop importing and start producing locally.”

Today, he stated, BUA mines and processes about 40,000 tonnes of limestone daily, producing roughly one million tonnes of cement every month. That shift, he added, has helped Nigeria move from being a cement importer to a net exporter, saving the country billions of dollars in foreign exchange annually.

Rabiu stressed that such a transformation would not have been possible without patient, long-term financing from DFIs, particularly the Africa Finance Corporation, which has supported BUA’s Cement and industrial operations with over $400 million in financing, saying that a significant portion of those facilities has already been repaid, demonstrating that well-structured African industrial projects are not only developmental, but also commercially viable and recyclable.

He said despite the prevalence of abundant natural resources, which he described “as a structural paradox, Africa being one of the world’s most resource-rich regions, “yet exports the bulk of its minerals and agricultural produce in raw, or minimally processed form.”

He cited examples across gold, cobalt, copper, iron ore, diamonds, and cocoa, saying that while Africa supplies much of the world’s raw inputs, it captures only a fraction of the value created downstream.

 “Africa does not lack resources,” he said, adding that “what it lacks is processing capacity, industrial scale and disciplined execution.”

He argued that the same challenge extends beyond mining into agriculture, where Africa holds a majority of the world’s arable land, yet continues to import billions of dollars worth of food annually.

The BUA chief called for coordinated action among governments, DFIs, and the private sector, urging DFIs to scale long-term financing targeted at beneficiation and industrial value chains, while governments adopt deliberate policies that incentivise local processing and invest in power, transport, and industrial infrastructure.

 “Industrialisation does not happen by accident,” he said, pointing out that “countries that industrialised did so by design, not by chance. Africa must do the same,” he stated.

He Africa’s opportunity lies in aligning private enterprise, patient capital, and supportive policy to move the continent from extraction to transformation, and from potential to shared prosperity.

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