Rwanda's President Paul Kagame called on the continent to unite against foreign powers attempting to take control of critical minerals and other resources at the Africa CEO Forum in Kigali this week.

"Why is Africa always at a disadvantage? When you look back, you see where Africa has been lacking this or that. But really, why, when you have almost everything, if you look at the area of green energy, and this continent is home to 60 per cent of solar potential, 60% is home to that; Africa is home to that. Then if you look at the critical minerals that I talked about, the majority are on the continent for making batteries and so on and so forth. And then different powers are fighting over that." 

He said the problem was that Africa had been handing over its resources, either letting Western countries take them or have them very cheaply - when it should be processing raw materials at home and selling them on at a bigger profit.

"Africa that has a lot of that is silent or losing most of it cheaply to those who have the power and have know what they want to do," . "So we need to come together and do something about it," Kagame stressed. 

The event, established in 2012, is dubbed the 'Davos of Africa', bringing together business leaders, investors, policy makers and journalists.