BUA Chairman Urges Africa to Prioritise Value Addition Over Raw Exports
Founder and Executive Chairman of BUA Group, Abdul Samad Rabiu, has urged African countries to rethink their development approach by shifting focus from exporting raw materials to large scale industrial processing and value addition.
Rabiu made the call while speaking as Special Guest of Honour at an Africa Finance Corporation forum held on the sidelines of Mining Indaba 2026. The event brought together African leaders, policymakers, financiers, and industry executives to examine the future of mining, industrialisation, and real sector development across the continent.
He praised the Africa Finance Corporation for mobilising long term capital for critical industrial sectors, noting that its leadership role and recent S&P Global rating with a positive outlook highlighted the importance of strong development finance institutions in driving sustainable growth in Africa.
Drawing from BUA Group’s journey, Rabiu recalled the company’s decision more than sixteen years ago to move away from cement importation to local manufacturing in Nigeria, despite the high capital requirements and long gestation periods associated with 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 explained that BUA now mines and processes about forty thousand tonnes of limestone daily and produces roughly one million tonnes of cement every month. This transition has helped Nigeria shift from being a cement importer to a net exporter, saving billions of dollars in foreign exchange each year.
Rabiu stressed that the transformation was made possible largely through patient, long term financing from development finance institutions, particularly the Africa Finance Corporation, which has provided over four hundred million dollars in funding for BUA’s cement and industrial operations. He added that a substantial portion of the facilities has already been repaid, showing that well structured African industrial projects can be both developmental and commercially viable.
Expanding the discussion to the wider continent, Rabiu described what he called a structural paradox, noting that Africa is among the most resource rich regions globally, yet continues to export most of its minerals and agricultural products in raw or minimally processed form.
He cited sectors such as gold, cobalt, copper, iron ore, diamonds, and cocoa, pointing out that while Africa supplies a significant share of global raw inputs, it captures only a small portion of the value generated further down the value chain.
“Africa does not lack resources,” he said. “What it lacks is processing capacity, industrial scale, and disciplined execution.”
Rabiu added that the same challenge exists in agriculture, where Africa controls much of the world’s arable land but still spends billions of dollars annually on food imports.
He called for stronger coordination between governments, development finance institutions, and the private sector, urging DFIs to expand long term financing for beneficiation and industrial value chains. He also tasked governments with adopting deliberate policies that encourage local processing while investing in power, transport and industrial infrastructure.
“Industrialisation does not happen by accident,” Rabiu said. “Countries that industrialised did so by design, not by chance. Africa must do the same.”
He concluded by stressing that Africa’s greatest opportunity lies in aligning private enterprise, patient capital, and supportive public policy to move the continent from extraction to transformation and from untapped potential to shared prosperity.
