Nigeria and the African Development Bank are spearheading a push to transform Africa’s mining sector by shifting away from raw mineral exports toward regional processing. At the Ministerial Forum on Critical Minerals in Abidjan, Minister of Solid Minerals Development Dele Alake proposed a West African minerals processing corridor connecting Lagos and Dakar to share infrastructure and boost value addition. The forum concluded with the Abidjan Declaration, where the AfDB pledged to provide financing and technical support to de-risk mining projects, aiming to increase intra-African trade and leverage the continent’s critical mineral reserves. Nigeria also advocated for the adoption of the Pan African Resource Reporting Code to standardize resource assessment and bolster investor confidence.