Africa Holds Renewable Energy Raw Materials But Can't Compete with China's Manufacturing

 The China Global South Project published on 15 October 2025 an article titled "China's Manufacturing Might Keep Africa Tied to Its Solar Supply Chain" by Njenga Hakeenah.  

Africa holds the raw materials needed to produce renewable energy products but lacks the scale and efficiency to compete with China in the manufacture of these products.  Efforts to do so by companies in South Africa and Nigeria failed.  African economies might be able to compete in the assembly of specialized products.  

Mineral Prices Drop Sharply and Impact Africa

Mining.com published an article on 7 July 2015 titled "China Panic Crushes Mining Stocks" by Frik Els.  The value of base and precious metals fell to multi-year lows following a stronger dollar, turmoil in the Eurozone, and especially the stock market crash in China.  Gold, silver, copper, iron, nickel, tin, zinc, lead, platinum, and palladium were all on the downside.  African countries are major suppliers of most of these metals and have have been impacted negatively.