The UN Economic Commission for Africa launched a €15.03 million, five-year critical minerals programme in Lusaka on June 2, 2026, funded by Germany's International Climate Initiative, covering the DRC, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Mozambique, and South Africa.
The IEA data underpinning the programme's rationale is commercially significant: only 3% of cobalt extracted in Africa is currently processed on the continent, against 62% for copper and 33% for phosphate. African mineral exports across copper, cobalt, phosphate, manganese, graphite, and nickel are currently valued at approximately $70 billion and could reach $120 billion by 2040 under a local transformation scenario. The $50 billion potential uplift represents the value currently captured by processing and refining operations located primarily in China.
Global demand for critical minerals could triple by 2030 and quadruple by 2040, according to a recent UN Security Council statement. For the six programme countries — which collectively hold the majority of the world's cobalt, copper, platinum group metals, and manganese reserves — the question is not whether demand exists but whether the institutional, industrial, and energy infrastructure required to capture downstream value can be built at the pace the demand trajectory implies. At €15 million over five years, the ECA programme is a capacity-building instrument rather than a capital investment vehicle — its impact will be measured in policy frameworks, trained personnel, and SME integration rather than in processing tonne
