Precious Anga
Lagos — The United Nations has selected Nigeria among six resource-rich developing countries for a new support mechanism aimed at building sustainable value chains for critical minerals needed for the global energy transition.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres announced the Country Support Mechanism on Critical Energy Transition Minerals on Wednesday in New York, naming Nigeria, Guinea, Indonesia, Madagascar, Zambia and Zimbabwe as the first beneficiaries.
The initiative is designed to help mineral-producing countries retain more economic value from resources increasingly required for clean-energy technologies, including lithium, copper, nickel, cobalt and rare earth elements.
“The countries that hold the critical minerals powering the energy transition must be the first to benefit from them,” Guterres said.
“With Guinea, Indonesia, Madagascar, Nigeria, Zambia and Zimbabwe as our first partners, the Country Support Mechanism puts equity and justice into practice – to turn mineral wealth into jobs and prosperity at home.”
For Nigeria, the support comes as the country seeks to expand its mining sector beyond the extraction and export of raw minerals by developing processing capacity, strengthening industrial value chains and attracting investment into downstream activities.
The UN said demand for critical minerals is expected to nearly triple by 2030 as countries accelerate the shift from fossil fuels to renewable energy and pursue net-zero emissions. It said the demand presents an opportunity for resource-rich developing economies to diversify, expand local value addition and create jobs.
However, the UN warned that weak governance and irresponsible extraction could leave producing communities bearing environmental and social costs without receiving corresponding economic benefits. The new mechanism will therefore provide technical and capacity-building support covering governance, value addition, industrial development, environmental protection and human rights safeguards.
The programme will be led by the United Nations Development Programme and the UN Development Coordination Office, drawing on expertise across the UN system and working with the six countries through their respective UN resident offices.
UNDP Administrator Alexander de Croo said critical minerals could support economic diversification and transformation if value creation, environmental protection and good governance were pursued together.
UNCTAD Deputy Secretary-General and Acting Secretary-General Pedro Manuel Moreno said the initiative would help mineral-rich developing countries move beyond their traditional role as raw-material exporters.
“For too long, the global economy has left resource-rich developing countries as raw material exporters rather than industrial partners,” Moreno said.
The mechanism forms part of the wider work of the UN Task Force on Critical Energy Transition Minerals, which coordinates efforts across UN agencies to implement recommendations on equitable, sustainable and responsible mineral value chains.
