A total of 1,800 delegates from 54 African countries are expected to attend the second 2026 African Raw Materials Summit (ARMS) to be hosted by the Raw Materials Research and Development Council (RMRDC) in Abuja from October 19 to 20, 2026.

The Director-General of the RMRDC, Prof. Nnanyelugo Ike-Muonso, disclosed this during a news conference to announce the second edition of the summit. The theme of the summit is “From African Feedstock to African Factories”.

Ike-Muonso said the 2nd edition of ARMS is designed to overcome the structural hurdles that prevent African feedstock from reaching African manufacturing plants, adding that the two days summit will focus on five primary pillars: logistics, policy, circular sustainability, continental integration, and capital-backed innovation.

The first edition was also held in Abuja in May 2025, themed: “Shaping the Future of Africa’s Resource Landscape”.

The event will bring together policymakers, financiers, researchers, manufacturers, investors and industrial leaders to discuss how Africa can process more of its raw materials locally and build competitive value chains.

The summit is designed to promote local processing and value addition across Africa, connect governments, businesses, researchers and investors, encourage technology transfer and industrial innovation, strengthen regional and cross-border raw-material value chains,support sustainable extraction and environmentally responsible production.

The Director-General further disclosed that in Nigeria alone, the nation’s subsoil holds over $582.4 billion in documented non-renewable natural resources.

“Across Africa’s 54 nations, our endowment of critical transition minerals, agricultural raw materials, and industrial feedstock is virtually peerless. Yet our vulnerability to external commodity price shocks persists, our currencies face avoidable pressures, and our youth seek jobs that our raw-commodity export model ships overseas”.

Ike-Muonso also disclosed that the Raw Materials 30% Mandatory Value Addition Bill championed by RMRDC and awaiting the President’s assent would serve as backbone of domestic industrialisation, structured to generate over 1.2 million skilled jobs within five years, save billions in foreign exchange through strategic import substitution, rebuild national foreign reserves, and expand manufacturing contribution to GDP.

According to him, the era of seeing Africa as a pit for mineral extraction is over. The future belongs to resource-based manufacturing.