Drone delivery and logistics company Zipline’s expansion comes at a time when the Nigerian government is seeking to improve healthcare outcomes nationwide.
A drone logistics distribution center, operated by Zipline, is expected to serve health facilities and community delivery sites within a 38,000-square-kilometer area of Southern Nigeria’s Bayelsa.
The center, marked by a ceremony attended by Nigeria’s Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Professor Muhammad Ali Pate, and Bayelsa State Governor Douye Diri, increases Zipline’s coverage in the state since 2023, now reaching 73 out of the state’s 83 wards.
‘’From its current facilities in Cross River and Bayelsa, it can serve the bordering states of Akwa Ibom and Abia, and Delta and Rivers, respectively. By sharing flight capacity (which surpasses 300 autonomous flights per day per facility), the operating expense for the system is spread across more users, bringing it down for everyone,’’ Akin Oyediran, Zipline’s Partnerships Executive in Nigeria, explains to FORBES AFRICA.
Through a Memorandum of Understanding signed last year with Nigeria’s Federal Ministry of Health, Zipline operating in the country since 2022 will support the country’s broader health infrastructure, with projections to reduce zero-dose children by 50%, avert 1.7 million disease cases, and save hundreds of thousands of lives over the next several years.
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‘’This infrastructure will represent the world’s largest autonomous logistics system and will help deliver health and economic impact in Nigeria akin to other major historical infrastructure upgrades. The project is expected to enable access to high-quality, reliable healthcare for more than 60% of the country’s non-urban population, and unlock a myriad of health and societal benefits,’’ says Oyediran.
In addition to its health initiatives, Zipline is exploring ways to extend its reach into Nigeria’s agriculture sector. Its success in Rwanda, where drones have been used to deliver livestock vaccines and artificial insemination products, has provided a model that Zipline hopes to replicate in Nigeria.
In 2022, Zipline partnered with the Government of Rwanda, which included the Rwanda Agriculture and Animal Resources Development Board (RAB), to up the delivery of both healthcare and animal care goods in the country.
That year alone, the Ministry of Agriculture reportedly delivered more than 500,000 doses of animal health vaccines and more than 8,000 units of swine semen to vets and farmers, using Zipline
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