The Lake Kivu Challenge Drone Competition organized by the African Drone Forum (ADF) in collaboration with the government of Rwanda was held in February this year but final results and winners were not announced.
The competition which attracted 11 drone companies from across the world, was aimed to help advance the safe implementation of electric cargo UAS transport, digital aviation solutions and related infrastructure in the Lake Kivu region.
Winners of the competition will be announced on Tuesday – May 5, 2020 at 15:00 CAT (central Africa Time), with a prize pool of nearly $300,000.
“For many of these organizations, the awards represent a unique opportunity to scale up their businesses and get exposure to international operators in their sector,” ADF said in a statement this Monday.
The online event will be officiated by Rwanda’s Minister of ICT and Innovation, Paula Ingabire, leaders from within the World Bank and the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development (DFID), joined by other experts from across the drone ecosystem in Rwanda.
To follow the event online, one is required to register https://bit.ly/LKCAwardsCeremony and Click Here to Join.
For those who can call in during the event, International numbers available are: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kdt5rEJOxn
The LKC Flying Competitions were designed to address real use cases for drone operation in Africa and the winners of the challenge are positioned as drone companies (local and foreign) able to solve real challenges on the African continent like delivering emergency blood packs, collecting medical samples and scanning disaster areas for survivors.
To further push this agenda and generate critical data, the ADF has put out a survey for countries and companies that have been using drones to provide support in response to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Rwanda is among the few countries that have used or deployed drones, during the Covid-19 lockdown to raise awareness on the virus spread, prevention and communicating key safety information to the public, especially in rural areas.
Further south in Africa, a mayor in Limpopo has implemented UAS tech in their monitoring efforts in which drones were equipped with a megaphone or speakers to send messages to people.
In Ghana, renowned drones for good company, Zipline, has started delivery of COVID-19 tests in the country’s largest cities, Accra and Kumasi.
