SYPALA: Africa must rethink minerals needed for industrialization – Bright Simons

By: Godbless Asaana‎

‎Ghanaian technologist, social innovator, entrepreneur, researcher, and public policy analyst at the IMANI Center for Policy and Education, Bright Simons, has called for a fundamental rethink of Africa’s mineral strategy, arguing that the continent does not necessarily possess the resources it needs in sufficient quantities to drive industrialization.
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‎Speaking at the Students and Young Professionals African Liberty Academy (SYPALA) 2026 on August 26, where he led a discussion on “The Seductive Illusion of Africa’s ‘30% Mineral Wealth’: How ‘Katanomics’ Is Undermining Africa’s Competitiveness in the Critical Minerals and Clean Technology Economy.”
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‎SYPALA, which stands for the Students and Young Professionals African Liberty Academy, is an annual educational program run by the IMANI Center for Policy and Education.
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‎According to him, Africa’s mineral strengths often do not align with the resources required to build modern industrial systems, making it dangerous for the continent to assume that it is naturally well-positioned for industrialisation.
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‎“What we are interested in Africa, above everything else, is industrialisation,” Mr. Simons said, explaining that industrialization should involve the creation and production of increasingly complex goods and services.
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‎He said minerals should therefore be assessed based on whether they can help economies move towards greater productivity and the production of more sophisticated goods and services.
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‎“If that is what’s interesting to us, then we should look for minerals that, when embedded in our economies or injected into our economies, generate complexity,” he stated.
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‎According to Mr. Simons, some of the minerals in which African countries have significant strengths are produced or consumed in relatively smaller quantities, while other minerals that form the foundation of industrial systems are less available on the continent.
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‎He warned that Africa’s limited industrial base currently masks the potential consequences of inadequate access to critical industrial minerals, because the continent has not yet reached the level of industrialization where demand for those resources would become acute.
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‎“We are not industrialising yet. So we don’t feel the pinch of not having enough of these minerals,” Mr. Simons said, adding that the situation could become “extremely critical” if African economies accelerate industrialization.
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‎He said the challenge therefore requires African countries to think beyond extracting and exporting minerals and instead focus on securing the resources, supply chains and industrial capabilities needed to transform their economies.
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‎ “The African strengths, the mineralisation that some countries have a lot of, I’m not very well-matched with what we really need,” he concluded.