Africa’s push to capture more value from its mineral wealth will move into the parliamentary spotlight next month when lawmakers from around the world gather in Tanzania for talks that include critical minerals and oversight of extractive industries.
The 153rd Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union will run from 5 – 9 October 2026, in Arusha, bringing together legislators from the organisation’s 183 member parliaments. The wider agenda covers governance, inclusion, artificial intelligence, employment, food systems, maritime security and international conflicts.
The minerals debate comes as African governments seek a larger share of the revenues generated from resources increasingly central to energy systems, electric vehicles, data centres and defence manufacturing.
Africa holds about 30% of known global critical-mineral reserves but receives roughly 10% of global mineral revenues, according to analysis cited by Reuters. The gap has helped push governments towards export restrictions, local-processing requirements and new infrastructure intended to keep more value on the continent.
Several recent deals show the shift.
Rwanda this month agreed a tungsten development and processing venture with Canada-based Almonty Industries in which the government will hold a 25% stake. Democratic Republic of Congo has created a task force to accelerate a strategic minerals partnership with the United States, while Guinea is discussing alumina refining and energy investments with Glencore after a bauxite marketing agreement worth more than US$300 million.
Zambia, meanwhile, wants to raise annual copper production to 3 million tonnes by 2031, while Angola and the Democratic Republic of Congo are linked through the Lobito Corridor, one of the continent’s largest attempts to connect mineral production more efficiently with Atlantic export routes.
Tanzania, the host of the IPU meeting, is pursuing a similar value-addition strategy from a broader industrial base. Manufactured exports rose 46% to about US$2.22 billion in the year to July 2026, while the 2,115MW Julius Nyerere Hydropower Plant has substantially increased electricity available to the national system.
The additional power is being targeted partly at manufacturing, mineral processing and agricultural value addition as Tanzania begins implementing Development Vision 2050.
The Arusha programme will examine not only mineral production but parliamentary oversight of extractive industries. That puts taxation, contracts, local processing, environmental safeguards and the distribution of resource revenues alongside the race to secure new supply.
Those questions are gaining urgency as the United States, Europe and China compete for access to minerals required by advanced manufacturing and the energy transition.
The Assembly is also expected to elect a new IPU president to replace Tanzania’s Tulia Ackson at the end of her three-year term.
For African legislators, the minerals sessions arrive as governments increasingly move beyond the question of how much the continent can mine towards how much economic value remains after the minerals leave the ground.
