AMSG Secretary General participates in the 9th ADPA Ordinary Council of Ministers Meeting in Zimbabwe

The Africa Minerals Strategy Group (AMSG) Secretary General Mr. Moses Micheal Engadu participated in the 9th Ordinary Council of Ministers Meeting of the African Diamond Producers Association (ADPA) held from 12 – 14 March 2024 at Elephant Hills Hotel, Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe. The AMSG Secretary General was accompanied by the Chief of Staff Mr. Patrick Mulindwa Lubega and Advisor Mr. Sharif Ahmed Nsamba.

The AMSG Secretary General H.E Moses Micheal Engadu shared the experience of the Africa Minerals Strategy Group on critical minerals and called on all ADPA Member Countries to focus on collaboration and resource sharing in order to address the capacitity building challenges collectively and to be able benefit more from Africa’s vast mineral resources.

H.E Moses Micheal Engadu asked the ADPA countries to domesticate beneficiation in the context of Africa. 

H.E. Moses Micheal Engadu, Secretary General, Africa Minerals Strategy Group (AMSG)

The 9th ADPA Council of Ministers Meeting was officially opened by His Excellency Dr. E. D. Mnangagwa, President of the Republic of Zimbabwe.

President Emmerson Mnangagwa in his address acknowledged that the meeting is convening at a time when we continue to reflect on the multiplicity of emerging global realities, challenges and opportunities. These entail that we must jolt our respective countries and the Continent as a whole, to re-imagine the new measures and strategies we should deploy to realise the “Africa we all want”.

President Mnangagwa further said: Our mother-continent, Africa contributes more than 60% of global natural rough diamond production. This makes us a key source of the mineral commodity. I challenge you as the representatives of our countries to assert the African position on matters of diamond production, trade and pricing. 

We are an independent Continent and those from overseas must talk to us as equals. The benefit and interests of our peoples should be the guiding key when it comes to the exploitation of our abundant natural resource endowment. Our collective voice must be heard and greater collaboration, cooperation and partnerships remains the panacea to win-win benefits and prosperity within the mining sector. As the peoples of Africa, we must move beyond the narratives where it is questioned whether our rich natural resources are a blessing or a curse. We must be awake and leverage on our natural resource endowments to build our beloved continent [Africa], brick by brick; stone upon stone and step by step.
His Excellency Dr. E. D. Mnangagwa
President of the Republic of Zimbabwe

His Excellency the President of Zimbabwe was accompanied by the Vice President Hon. Gen. (Rtd). Dr. C. G. D. N. Chiwenga; the Minister of Mines and Mining Development and Chair of the African Diamond Producers Association Hon. Z. Soda; the Minister of State for Provincial Affairs and Devolution, Matabeleland North Province, Hon. R. Moyo, the Deputy Minister of Mines and Mining Development Hon. Dr. Eng. P. Kambamura; Chairperson, Parliament Portfolio Committee on Mines and Mining Development Hon. R. Matangira and Chief Secretary to the President and Cabinet Dr. M. Rushwaya. 

Vice President of the Republic of Zimbabwe Hon. Gen. (Rtd). Dr. C. G. D. N. Chiwenga
Minister of Mines and Mining Development of the Republic of Zimbabwe Hon. Zhemu Soda

The Secretary General, AMSG made the following statement during the meeting:

I would like to make a simple observation building on the experience from the Africa Minerals Strategy Group around critical minerals which is, can we leverage the comparative advantage, competitive advantage and synergies that each of our countries can be able to do common engagements around marketing because it is all about telling the story, about the reputation, after all, when you go out there and you say I am from Zimbabwe, if you don’t say Africa, they will not know where Zimbabwe is. When you say I am from Zimbabwe they say Africa. So in any case we are treated as one Country when you’re outside the borders of Africa. So it is very important therefore that we focus on collaboration, resource sharing. All these challenges of capacity building could be addressed when we meet together. Why would we have very competent skilled polishers in Zimbabwe and the nearby country does not have? We should be able to create a programme of human capabilities advancement that can be able to share these resources. We can send our people to India, the learn from there, they come back and implement here. We have to be thinking in a much forward future. Now my question to the countries especially those of ADPA is, what is beneficiation in the context of Africa? Because we have a tendency of not domesticating and adapting things and I’m happy that some of the presenters were able to say beneficiation goes beyond polishing and cutting to the other aspects that address that, so we should be having these questions as top of mind, what does this actually mean to us as a continent and I also want to echo that we cannot succeed when we are doing things individually but we need the collective efforts of everyone. Thank you.
His Excellency Moses Micheal Engadu
Secretary General, Africa Minerals Strategy Group (AMSG)
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