Local content development is a trend that has started taking hold in African countries as they advance sustainable mining growth through culture, leadership and inclusion.

This year Ghana introduced the Gold Board, an agency that will buy gold from local miners in an effort to formalise the sector. Zambia is also set to finalise its draft Local Content Regulations for the mining sector this year too.

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Local content strategies across Africa are being highlighted, as well as how they are driving local beneficiation and skills development.

Effective local content strategies in African mining foster skills and economic beneficiation through measures like prioritising local labour and procurement, investing in local businesses for downstream processing, providing incentives for local SMEs and developing infrastructure that supports these efforts. 

Success depends on coordinated government initiatives, industry collaboration, robust capacity-building programmes for local suppliers and frameworks encouraging value addition to raw minerals before export, aligning with national and global developmental goals. 

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Governments are realising the importance of implementing and enforcing local content laws. Nigeria’s Local Content Development Act is a good example of this. It requires companies to meet specific thresholds for local goods and services. 

This is typically paired with providing financial incentives like loans, subsidies or tariff concessions for local suppliers and extractive firms that link up. Technical assistance and business training to SMEs is also offered to help them become fit for purpose. 

This also naturally leads to investing in the necessary infrastructure, including logistics and transportation, to facilitate local processing and reduce costs for local businesses involved in beneficiation.