President John Dramani Mahama has called for greater African sovereignty over natural resources, insisting that value addition must replace the long-standing model of raw material exports.

Addressing Zambia’s National Assembly, he said Africa must leverage its resource wealth to create jobs and prosperity.

He criticised the practice of granting large-scale mineral concessions to speculators who flip assets for profit without benefiting host nations. Instead, he called for the empowerment of indigenous companies across the extractive sector.

“The era of parceling out large-scale concessions to speculators must end,” President Mahama declared.

“Indigenous companies must be encouraged to capture the commanding heights of our economies.”

Using Ghana as an example, he said the establishment of the Gold Board has increased gold exports from the artisanal and small-scale sector from 63 tons to 104 tons within ten months, generating over $10 billion in foreign exchange inflows.

President Mahama said Ghana is now refining gold locally and intends to domesticate the processing of manganese and bauxite.

“Africa must not be ashamed to leverage its comparative advantage in natural resources,” he stressed.