Zipline’s drone
Zipline has opened another new facility in Nigeria to support the government in delivering on its mandate of improved access to healthcare.
The facility, which is one of three to be built in the country, was opened in Cross River State in the South of Nigeria, as a partnership between Zipline and the government of the Cross River State.
A similar one was recently commissioned in Kaduna State to ensure logistics and medical supplies like vaccines, blood, and pharmaceuticals reach communities within shorter periods compared with the existing means of deliveries.
Ben Ayade, the governor of Cross River State said that the presence of the Zipline would bring a drop in mortality rate and reduce health complications resulting from snake bites, child diseases, and malaria.
The facility is expected to deliver medical supplies reliably across the state because the drones can geo-locate with 99.9 percent precision making it possible to complete travel autonomously.
Catherine Odiase, General Manager of Zipline Nigeria said that Zipline’s technology is simple, reliable, and fast, and will help to provide quality health care services for all persons especially in remote health facilities in need of medical supplies.
Zipline, a global leader in instant logistics and deliveries, has become an African household name for immediate transport of medical logistics, averaging a delivery every two minutes since it commenced operations in 2016 in Rwanda.
Zipline has expansion plans across Africa and in 2022 renewed its partnership with the government of Rwanda to serve the entire country with drone delivery services, targeting 2million healthcare deliveries and fly more than 200 million autonomous kilometres in Rwanda by 2029.
In doing so, Rwanda will bring innovative and environmental friendly logistics and delivery to the country and will be the first country in the world with the ability to make autonomous instant deliveries to its entire population.
Zipline delivers 75 percent of Rwanda’s blood supply outside of Kigali from its distribution centres in Muhanga and Kayonza.
Its instant delivery network has enabled over 400 hospitals and clinics to get blood, medication and the supplies they need within minutes of ordering, giving them the ability to treat both everyday medical conditions and emergencies.
Data from Rwandan public hospitals show that researchers from the University of Pennsylvania found an 88 percent reduction in hospital maternal deaths due to postpartum haemorrhage as a result of Zipline’s logistics and delivery system.
Zipline currently operates on three continents and completes an instant delivery on behalf of businesses and governments every two minutes and has delivered more than 450,000 packages, 4.5 million products, and flown more than 30 million autonomous miles.
