Clean Cooking
$0.9B → $5.5B
with policy support
Ethanol stoves replace charcoal and biomass in urban households where LPG is unavailable or unaffordable.
The Case
A $10B opportunity for Africa's energy future.
Sub-Saharan Africa spent over $50B importing fossil fuels in 2023. Bioethanol can displace a meaningful share — built from African feedstocks, refined on African soil.
The Opportunity
A new supply source for Africa's energy mix — without replacing international trade.
Africa has a $10B annual bioethanol production potential by 2035, spanning clean cooking, road fuel blending, Sustainable Aviation Fuel, and 2G feedstock export.
Energy Security
A diversified supply base — combining international fuel access with growing domestic production — projected to improve Africa's FX balance by $7B by 2035.
Health Impact
Reduction in household air pollution from biomass burning, which causes an estimated 600,000 deaths in Africa each year.
Economic Growth
Up to 325,000 jobs and 2.2 million smallholder farmers supported by 2035 through rural agribusiness value chains.
Climate Action
Significant GHG reductions aligned with national NDCs and international carbon market frameworks.
The Case
A structural energy vulnerability — and a continental answer.
East Africa's refining infrastructure meets only 5% of regional fuel demand. Most African economies import transport, cooking, and aviation fuel through a narrow set of corridors — creating persistent exposure to price shocks that governments cannot easily absorb.
Bioethanol, drawing on Africa's agricultural resource base, is one of the few supply-side interventions commercially viable at current cost structures — with significant co-benefits across employment, smallholder income, and foreign exchange.
Four commercially grounded use cases — Manufacturing Africa (2026)
Across clean cooking, road fuel blending, sustainable aviation fuel, and green chemicals, bioethanol offers Africa a set of demand pathways that are already commercially viable — and that scale together with policy support.
Use Cases
Four commercially grounded use cases.
Road Fuel Blending
$3.1B
E5–E20 mandates drive demand for low-carbon fuel, lowering emissions and supporting rural industrialisation.
SAF Refining
$1.1B
Alcohol-to-jet pathways position Africa for domestic and export markets as global SAF mandates scale post-2030.
Green Chemicals
Emerging opportunity
Industrial ethanol for green chemicals and 2G feedstock export across priority markets.
Source: Manufacturing Africa, African Biofuels Market Assessment, February 2026
Priority Markets
Five priority markets. One continental vision.
- Kenya
- Uganda
- Tanzania
- Mozambique
- Nigeria
ABA will expand its activities to additional African markets progressively from 2027.