Kenya is close to sealing a critical minerals deal with the United States under which it would process its own resources domestically, its president said on the sidelines of the G7 summit on Wednesday, urging a broader reset in ties between Africa and the West.

Countries across Africa have pushed in recent years to process more of the minerals they produce domestically, marking a shift toward keeping more value on the continent.

William Ruto, representing one of several partner countries that attended the summit on the shores of Lake Geneva, said in an interview with Reuters that the agreement, covering rare earths and other strategic minerals, was already in the works and could be concluded soon.

"We have agreed that the minerals will be processed in Kenya," he said, following discussions he had held earlier with G7 leaders, including US President Donald Trump.

'Mutually beneficial'

"We've agreed with them on what is mutually beneficial between Kenya and the United States, and President Trump and the American administration are happy with it."

The deal reflects a wider push by African countries to move away from decades-old models of exporting raw materials, as competition intensifies between Western nations and China over access to resources needed for the energy transition and advanced technologies.

"It's the same thing that they are doing in DRC (Democratic Republic of Congo) to make sure that whatever agreements, whatever deals are being fashioned are deals that benefit the country," Ruto said.

"These natural resources can no longer be exported and processed elsewhere. They have to be processed in-country and in-continent. We have to create value out of them," he said.

Untapped deposits of niobium, lithium, graphite

In addition to rare earths, Kenya has large untapped deposits of niobium, lithium, graphite, copper and nickel.

The G7 leaders agreed on Wednesday to step up coordination to cut their countries' reliance on China for critical minerals, including plans to align stockpiling and launch a new platform with an expanded role for the International Energy ​Agency.

Ruto said he agreed with Trump that partnerships should be based on investment rather than aid, adding that the continent no longer wanted relationships built on dependency or resource extraction.

"We are going to reject any relationships that are based on extraction of our natural resources,” Ruto said, calling for a shift toward job creation, industrial development and shared returns.

Multiple partnerships

Ruto said Kenya and other African nations would not choose between Washington and Beijing, but instead pursue multiple partnerships aligned with their own economic priorities.

"There are opportunities for everybody," he said, adding that Africa had recently concluded trade deals with China and hoped that there would now be deeper engagement with the United States and Europe.

Ruto said he had told G7 leaders to support changes to the global financial system, arguing that Africa's main constraint was not a lack of capital, but barriers to accessing it.

"We are not short of capital … what we need is a framework to mobilise it,” he said, pointing to trillions of dollars held in African pension funds, insurance assets and reserves.

Guarantees

He called for guarantees and risk-sharing mechanisms from G7 countries to help unlock that capital and lower borrowing costs.

He said G7 leaders had signalled support in principle for strengthening African financial institutions and developing such mechanisms, including in the African Trade & Investment Development Insurance (ATIDI), which he said all G7 countries had pledged to take a share in.

"Africa is not a problem to be solved," Ruto said. "It is an opportunity that can be harnessed for global progress."