Founder and Executive Chairman of BUA Group, Abdul Samad Rabiu, has called for a decisive shift in Africa’s development strategy, urging governments, financiers and the private sector to move the continent from raw material extraction to large-scale industrial processing and value addition.
Rabiu made the remarks as Special Guest of Honour at an Africa Finance Corporation (AFC) forum during 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.
Commending AFC for that role in mobilising long-term capital for Africa’s industrial sectors, a statement quoted Rabiu as saying 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.
Drawing from BUA Group’s own experience, he recounted the company’s decision over 16 years ago to transition from importing cement into Nigeria to local production despite the capital intensity and lengthy gestation periods of mining and heavy industry.
“At the time, Nigeria was importing cement despite being richly endowed with limestone,” Rabiu said. “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.”
He said today BUA mines and processes about 40,000 tonnes of limestone daily, producing about one million tonnes of cement every month a shift that has helped Nigeria go from being a cement importer to a net exporter, saving billions in foreign exchange annually.
Rabiu stressed such transformation would not have been possible without patient, long-term financing from development finance institutions particularly the Africa Finance Corporation, which supported BUA’s cement and industrial operations with over $400 million in financing, much of which has already been repaid.
Turning to the wider continent, Rabiu highlighted what he described as a structural paradox: Africa remains one of the world’s most resource-rich regions, yet continues to export the majority of its minerals and agricultural produce in raw or minimally processed form.
He cited resources such as gold, cobalt, copper, iron ore, diamonds and cocoa raw inputs Africa supplies globally but from which it captures only a fraction of the downstream value.
“Africa does not lack resources,” Rabiu said. “What it lacks is processing capacity, industrial scale and disciplined execution.”
He urged governments, DFIs and the private sector to coordinate policies, financing and infrastructure investment that incentivize local processing, build industrial capacity and help the continent capture more value from its own natural wealth.
“Industrialization does not happen by accident,” he added. “Countries that industrialized did so by design, not by chance. Africa must do the same.”
