At the recent Investing in African Mining Indaba, Deputy Minister of Mineral and Petroleum Resources, Phumzile Mgcina, reiterated the government’s stance that mining is a sunrise industry. This was echoed by President Cyril Ramaphosa in his State of the Nation Address (Sona).
“This has the potential to become one of the world’s largest and lowest cost new producers of minerals that are needed for smartphones, lithium batteries and other products,” said the president.
Unlocking that potential by marrying prospects with finance is where Access Bank comes in.
The bank believes that this year’s indaba theme, Stronger Together: Progress Through Partnerships, reflects its approach to unlocking Africa’s mining potential.
Seyi Kumapayi, executive director for African subsidiaries at Access Bank. Image supplied.
Seyi Kumapayi, executive director for African subsidiaries at Access Bank, took some time to speak to Bizcommunity about the bank’s new Rehabilitation Finance offering, attracting foreign investment that remains inclusive, and how Africa can discover its full mining potential.
How does this year’s Mining Indaba theme align with Access Bank’s approach to mining in Africa?
It aligns directly with how we have built our mining strategy over the past three years.
Three years ago, we had no exposure to the mining sector. Today, our portfolio stands at approximately $300m. That growth was not opportunistic.
It followed a deliberate, board-approved pilot phase, the establishment of a South African Centre of Excellence, the recruitment of dedicated mining expertise, and the development of a structured mining and sustainability framework in collaboration with PwC.
Mining in Africa is inherently long-term and inherently cross-border. It cannot be financed transaction by transaction in isolation.
It requires alignment across sponsors, insurers, trade corridors, sovereign stakeholders, and multiple capital providers.
The theme “Stronger Together” reflects that structural reality.
Mining finance today is an ecosystem. Without coordinated partnerships, projects stall at the feasibility stage.
Our focus has therefore been on deliberately building that ecosystem, aligning local balance sheets with group capacity, structuring corridor-based financing solutions, and integrating trade, risk, and funding platforms.
In that sense, we are not simply participating in deals.
We are contributing to the architecture that enables large-scale mining finance across Africa.
What are the biggest stumbling blocks for investment in African mining?
Regulation itself is not the problem. In fact, well-designed and consistently enforced regulatory frameworks are among the strongest attractors of long-term capital.
Mining is too strategic a sector to operate without oversight.
The challenge arises when regulatory regimes evolve unpredictably over the life of an asset.
Mining projects span decades. Investors and lenders require confidence that taxation frameworks, licensing regimes, and export conditions will remain broadly stable.
When predictability weakens, modelling returns becomes more complex, and capital structures tighten.
There is also the structural reality of mining.
Projects require significant upfront investment, followed by sustained capital over the asset’s life.
Investors are not only assessing feasibility; they are evaluating resilience across commodity cycles, policy shifts, and operating pressures over decades.
Commodity volatility adds further discipline.
When prices move sharply, both corporate and blocks for investment in African mining?
Regulation itself is not the problem.
In fact, well-designed and consistently enforced regulatory frameworks are among the strongest attractors of long-term capital.
Sovereign balance sheets feel the pressure. Capital does not disappear in these moments.
It becomes more structured. It looks for shock-absorption mechanisms rather than assuming stable pricing environments.
Infrastructure is equally decisive.
Reliable energy supply, efficient transport corridors, and dependable site access are embedded in valuation models.
Where logistics and power are stable, risk premiums narrow. Where they are fragile, funding terms tighten.
Africa’s mineral opportunity is not in question.
The issue is less about the absence of capital and more about the ability to price and structure risk coherently across jurisdictions.
When risk can be clearly assessed and allocated, capital participates.
How does Access Bank’s new Rehabilitation Finance offering help mining companies meet environmental, social and governance (ESG) obligations?
The Rehabilitation Finance offering addresses a specific regulatory requirement within the mining framework.
Mining companies must demonstrate financial capacity to meet agreed rehabilitation obligations at the end of a project’s life.
That obligation is defined between the operator and the regulator and must be supported by credible financial security.
Traditionally, this has been achieved through bank guarantees, often backed by cash collateral or by utilising existing credit lines.
While effective, this can consume balance sheet capacity that might otherwise support expansion, equipment acquisition, or working capital.
Our model introduces a more efficient structure by pairing a guarantee with an insurance-backed component.
The mine continues to meet its regulatory obligations, and the regulator’s standards remain intact, but the balance sheet impact is reduced.
In practical terms, liquidity is freed without compromising compliance.
The bank does not assume responsibility for rehabilitation itself.
Our role is to structure and provide the financial instruments that demonstrate capacity.
This sits within our broader sustainability and ESG framework, which governs how we assess mining exposure.
It is not a symbolic ESG gesture.
It is a capital-efficiency solution that preserves regulatory integrity while strengthening financial flexibility.
That is what mining finance architecture looks like in practice.
What role does Access Bank play in shaping the future of African mining finance?
Africa holds approximately 30% of global mineral reserves. Supporting mining is therefore not peripheral to economic transformation but is central to it.
We see our role as shaping the financial systems that allow mining projects to move from concept to execution across borders.
Mining is capital-intensive, long-term, and frequently cross-jurisdictional. Assets may sit in one country, off-take in another, and financing sources in a third.
As a pan-African bank with group balance-sheet capacity, we structure facilities that reflect that complexity rather than forcing projects into single-market solutions.
Beyond capital provision, we are part of the trade flows on which mining depends.
Minerals must be exported, settled, hedged, and financed across jurisdictions.
Our network enables coordinated support across African markets and into global trading hubs.
At scale, mining finance is rarely bilateral.
It requires syndication, development finance participation, insurance partners, and sovereign alignment.
We frequently play a structuring and coordination role within that ecosystem.
The Lobito Corridor in Angola (a multi-billion-dollar initiative involving both public and private capital, including participants such as Trafigura) illustrates how corridor-based infrastructure and mining projects must be structured collaboratively to become bankable.
Shirley Webber and Stephen Seaka 12 Jan 2026 We also recognise that the next phase of African mining is not simply extraction.
It is beneficiation. In certain contexts, processing minerals locally can increase export value several times over raw material exports.
Achieving that shift requires long-term capital, structured trade corridors, and financing models that align industrial policy with investor returns.
Our ambition is to be a top-five bank in each country where we operate.
Scale matters.
With scale comes convening power, policy engagement capacity, and the ability to align capital with development priorities.
Mining in Africa is corridor-based.
Capital, assets, logistics, and off-take rarely sit in the same geography. Our model is built for that.
How can Africa attract more foreign investment while ensuring the mining industry is inclusive?
Foreign investment follows clarity and predictability.
Long-term capital is prepared to price risk.
What it struggles with is inconsistency.
Investors require regulatory frameworks that are transparent and durable, and policy direction that signals coherence over decades rather than abrupt shifts.
Political stability plays a direct role in that assessment.
Mining projects are long-term commitments.
When sovereign or regulatory risk becomes opaque, risk premiums rise and financing structures tighten.
Execution also matters.
Infrastructure reliability directly influences project viability.
Dependable power supply, efficient logistics corridors, and predictable permitting timelines narrow the gap between projected and realised returns.
The sustainability dimension is now embedded in global supply chains.
Environmental, social, and ethical sourcing requirements are legitimate and increasingly non-negotiable.
They add cost and complexity, but they are not optional.
The opportunity in African markets lies in developing frameworks that enable projects to meet these standards while remaining competitive.
Regional integration remains a structural challenge.
Cross-border mining investment requires capital mobilisation, trusted intermediaries, reliable information exchange, and efficient trade routes.
Where these elements are fragmented, intra-African trade slows. Where they are aligned, value chains deepen.
Inclusion, therefore, is not separate from investment.
When capital frameworks support local processing, supplier ecosystems, and logistics participation, value creation extends beyond extraction.
That strengthens both investor returns and domestic economic impact.
What is holding Africa back from exploring its full mining potential?
Africa’s constraint is not geology, nor a shortage of global demand. It is coordination.
Mining requires regulatory clarity, infrastructure reliability, and structured capital alignment over decades.
Where these elements move at different speeds, investment slows.
Investors can price risk.
What they struggle with is fragmented risk when regulatory evolution, infrastructure timelines, and financing tenor are not synchronised.
Infrastructure gaps, particularly in energy and logistics, remain central.
Reliable power and efficient corridors sit at the core of valuation models.
When operational risk increases, the cost of capital rises accordingly.
There is also a structuring gap.
Large-scale mining increasingly relies on blended capital models, syndicated participation, development finance, and coordinated public–private alignment.
Where that architecture is incomplete, capital remains theoretical rather than executable.
Africa holds the minerals required for industrial growth and the global energy transition.
Unlocking that potential is less about discovery and more about design.
It is about building systems, partnerships, and financial frameworks that align risk, capital, and execution across borders.
When those elements converge, mining shifts from promise to bankable reality.
