Zipline starts drone delivery of medical products in Cross River

Zipline, an American drone delivery services company, says it has begun commercial deliveries of essential medical products to health facilities within Cross River. 

The company in a statement on Tuesday said that this followed a successful approval and a right to fly certification from the Civil Aviation Authorities in Nigeria.

Catherine Odiase, General Manager of Zipline Nigeria, said that as part of the Memorandum of Understanding with Cross River, the company would build and operate two distribution centres where it would store essential medicines and vaccines.

She explained that health workers would place orders by text message or call and promptly receive their deliveries exactly when and where they need them in 30 minutes on average.

“Our technology is proven to be one of choice for the last mile delivery.

“This partnership with Cross River will allow us to start seeing very significant improvements in the delivery of essential medicines and vaccines to health facilities within our operational area,” Odiase said.

She said that Zipline was deeply indebted to the state government and all the agencies that worked tirelessly to get the required certification for the commencement of commercial deliveries in the state.

Also, Mr Godwin Ipuole, the Health Officer in-charge of Primary Health Centre,Ibil, Ogoja, commended the state government for the bold decision to use technology to remove the access barriers that many far-to-reach communities, like Ibil, face in the course of their work.

“Vaccine stock-outs have been a huge challenge to us.

“Our inability to always meet the health needs of our clients, simply on the grounds of non-availability of essential medicines lowers our motivation.

“I have no doubt that with such a transformative technology, our primary challenge of access will be a thing of the past,” he said.

Mrs Abasi Offiong, the Director- General of the Cross-River State Primary Health Care Development Agency, said she was hopeful that the technology would play a key role in the overall healthcare delivery within the state.

Offiong said: “It is our expectation that all medical commodities to all the primary healthcare agencies within the various local governments will be sourced from Zipline.

“With the degree of efficiency that Zipline puts into their work, we anticipate that all essential medicines requested will be delivered timely and within the right conditions,” Offiong said.

She said that the partnership was an opportunity for the state to improve the overall universal health delivery project they were committed to deliver.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Zipline drones fly autonomously and can carry three kilos of cargo, speeding at 110 kilometers an hour, and have a round trip range of 220 kilometers, even in high speed winds and rain.

Deliveries are made from the sky, with the drone descending to a safe height above the ground and releasing a box of medicine by parachute to a designated spot at the health centers and community delivery points it serves.

Zipline operates on three continents and completes an instant delivery on behalf of businesses and governments every two minutes.

Zipline has delivered more than 500,000 packages, more than five million products, and flown more than 40 million autonomous miles, 20 times the amount that the world’s largest autonomous vehicle company has completed.

Cross River State becomes the second state in Nigeria after Kaduna to go commercial with the use of Zipline drone technology. (NAN)