KIGALI — Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame used his platform at the 2026 Africa CEO Forum in Kigali to deliver a sharp and unambiguous message to global powers: Africa will not be bullied into surrendering its mineral wealth. In a rare direct condemnation, Kagame singled out the Trump administration’s campaign of minerals coercion against African nations, drawing loud applause from an audience of more than 2,800 business leaders from across the continent.
The outburst came during the presidential panel at the Kigali summit, where Kagame was joined by Nigeria’s Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Equatorial Guinea’s Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo. The three leaders spoke with unusual candour about the existential choices facing African nations as external powers compete to lock the continent into supplier roles while keeping value addition elsewhere.
“We are told we must be grateful for the attention. But attention is not kindness. Attention is hunger,” Kagame said, his voice cutting through the auditorium. “When someone comes to you with a demand dressed as a partnership, you must ask: who benefits most from this arrangement?”
The Rwandan president was referring in part to Washington’s aggressive campaign to secure minerals supply chains through bilateral dealmaking that critics say resembles economic colonisation. In March 2026, the United States Treasury imposed sanctions on the Rwanda Defence Force and four senior officials, a move Kagame described as punishment for Rwanda’s independent foreign policy rather than any genuine concern for regional stability.
Sanctions as a Tool of Coercion
Kagame’s critique extended beyond the United States. He argued that Western sanctions regimes — deployed across Sudan, Zimbabwe, and previously against Rwanda itself — represent a pattern of geopolitical coercion dressed up as moral concern. “They say they want democracy. They say they want peace. But what they really want is compliance,” he told the audience. “Every time Africa tries to assert ownership over its resources, we are told we are not ready. The truth is: we are ready. They are the ones who are not ready to let go.”
The Africa CEO Forum, now in its twelfth edition, has grown into the continent’s largest annual gathering of private sector executives, investors, and policymakers. This year’s theme — “Owning the Future” — could not have been better chosen, said forum director Amir Benyahia. “What we are witnessing in this room is a shift in mindset. African leaders no longer want to be partners in someone else’s vision. They want to drive their own.”
A United Front on Raw Materials
The tensions between Africa and external powers over mineral wealth have been building for years, but 2026 has seen them sharpen dramatically. A landmark investigation by African Business magazine found that the continent holds 48 percent of global cobalt reserves, 22 percent of graphite, and massive shares of lithium, manganese, and rare earth elements — the building blocks of the global energy transition.
Yet African nations have historically captured only a fraction of the value generated by these resources. Most raw materials are exported for processing abroad, denying the continent jobs, industrial capacity, and technological know-how. The Africa CEO Forum in Kigali made clear that this status quo is now firmly under challenge.
Tinubu, speaking alongside Kagame, outlined Nigeria’s “Africa First” doctrine, which his administration has been quietly building since early 2026. “Our minerals belong to Nigeria. Our resources belong to Nigeria. And Nigeria will decide who benefits from them,” he said to sustained applause. The Nigerian president also announced plans for a continental commodity exchange that would allow African nations to trade resources among themselves before any raw material goes to external markets.
For his part, Obiang Nguema used the platform to reaffirm Equatorial Guinea’s commitment to processing its oil and gas resources domestically. “We made the mistake of exporting everything raw. We will not repeat it,” he said, announcing that Malabo would host a continental energy processing conference in the final quarter of 2026.
Pan-African Unity at a Crossroads
The tone of this year’s forum reflected a deeper transformation in how African governments approach external pressure. Gone are the days when multilateral institutions could dictate terms with little resistance. The evidence was visible not just in the speeches but in the deals being struck on the sidelines: a Nigerian-Rwandan technology joint venture, a Kenyan-South African infrastructure fund, and a Congolese-Cameroonian mining partnership that will see cobalt processed locally for the first time.
Analysts say the shift represents a fundamental reorientation of Africa’s place in the global economy. “For decades, Africa was told that its role was to be patient — to wait for development to arrive from abroad,” said Dr. Chioma Obi, an economist at the African Development Bank. “The leaders in Kigali this week are collectively saying: we are done waiting.”
Kagame closed his remarks with a warning to global powers: Africa is united, and that unity is non-negotiable. “They can sanction us. They can threaten us. They can refuse to invest. But they cannot change the fact that these resources belong to us,” he said to a standing ovation. “The future of Africa will be written by Africans. That is not a hope. It is a certainty.”
The Africa CEO Forum 2026 runs through May 15 in Kigali, Rwanda.