While the production of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) in Africa is still at an early stage, the challenge is ensuring markets on the continent are not left behind as global SAF production scales, according to Haldane Dodd, executive director of the Geneva-based Air Transport Action Group (ATAG) that fosters collaboration on issues of concern for aviation and society.
“Around 45 countries are now developing or implementing policies to speed up the uptake of SAF but so far, none in Africa. This creates an opportunity for regional co-ordination,” Dodd said.
However, feedstock availability is only part of the equation. In addition, infrastructure is needed to convert natural resources into SAF and incentivising SAF production at scale by lowering the price per litre to create a competitive alternative to conventional jet fuel.
“As of today, there are no large-scale SAF production facilities operating on the continent and no SAF blending mandates currently exist in Africa. The construction of production facilities or conversion of existing refineries requires a massive capital investment through both public and private investments,” Dodd said.
“Traditional energy suppliers need to commit to SAF development. This should be paired with policy frameworks that de-risk investment and ensure scalability but also provide a responsible approach to feedstock allocation for SAF production, prioritising feedstocks that do not compete with food production, avoiding deforestation, and protecting biodiversity.”
AfriSAF is an enabler of SAF projects in Africa, developing a feedstock platform, which identifies eligible feedstocks for SAF production and connecting these feedstocks to projects.
That is why AfriSAF CEO Kwame Bekoe believes Africa has the potential to develop the lowest-cost feedstock in the world, presenting a large opportunity to supply SAF to meet the demand in mandated markets such as the EU.
“It [will] take governments incentivising the adoption and production of SAF to build momentum,” says Bekoe.
In the view of Lydia-Claire Halliday, a stakeholder relations consultant covering aviation, energy and industry across Africa, SA has the potential to produce SAF locally and use it regionally. She has said she hopes the EU’s Global Gateway initiative to support SAF production, particularly in Africa, will act as a catalyst on the continent.
Omar Ali Adib, Rolls-Royce’s senior vice-president for Africa, said the cost of aircraft fuel in Africa exceeded global averages by up to 30%, which could be attributed to the lack of local refining capability, unique market dynamics, taxation and duties, and foreign-exchange challenges from weakening local currencies.
“There are opportunities for Africa in the global transition to SAF, which will need to be indigenously produced to be truly sustainable. This alternative African fuel would bring immediate benefits to emissions and longer-term fuel security. But the challenge is to produce SAF at scale,” he said.
Kevin Kruger, Puma Energy’s aviation commercial manager, based in SA, echoed that the SAF landscape in the country and in Africa as a whole faced significant challenges on both supply and demand fronts.
“Currently, there is minimal SAF availability across the continent, combined with limited demand due to the absence of government mandates or meaningful incentive schemes to offset the higher costs compared to conventional jet fuel. This creates a classic market impasse: demand remains low because prices are high, while prices remain high due to limited supply,” he explains.
“As SAF is designed to be blended with conventional jet fuel for aircraft use, its demand potential is directly correlated with overall jet fuel consumption patterns in Africa. However, the current supply-demand mismatch and lack of incentives significantly constrains actual SAF uptake in the region.”
Kruger explained that, from an environmental perspective, SAF’s value lay in its life cycle carbon savings — reducing emissions more during production rather than at the point of combustion.
“For Africa to take advantage of the benefits of SAF, collaboration among governments, industry players and investors is essential to create a supportive ecosystem,” Kruger said.
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) expects global SAF production to reach 2.5-billion litres in 2025.
“While it is encouraging that SAF production is expected to double in 2025, that is just 0.7% of aviation’s total fuel needs. The pace of progress in ramping up production and gaining efficiencies to reduce costs must accelerate,” said Willie Walsh, IATA’s director-general, at IATA’s recent annual summit in India.
For example, Europe’s SAF mandates have made SAF five times more costly than conventional jet fuel.
“This highlights the problem with the implementation of mandates before there are sufficient market conditions and before safeguards are in place against unreasonable market practices that raise the cost of decarbonisation,” cautioned Walsh.
IATA has worked on two initiatives, namely an SAF registry and the SAF Matchmaker that will facilitate SAF procurement by matching airline requests for SAF with supply offers.
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