Bala Wunti, a former Chief Upstream Investment Officer of NUIMS and managing director of NAPIMS and the Petroleum Products Marketing Company, warned at the 2026 Concordia Annual Summit in New York that Africa's new mineral wealth in lithium, cobalt, and rare earth elements could repeat the mistakes of its crude oil era. Wunti, who led the renegotiation of Nigeria's Deep Offshore Production Sharing Contracts, argued that exporting crude while importing refined petroleum creates poverty rather than prosperity. He emphasized the need for Africa to avoid a similar trap with its energy transition minerals.
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