Determined to bring health care delivery closer to the people as well as hard-to-reach areas, Cross River State governor, Sir Ben Ayade, Tuesday, commissioned Zipline Drone Distribution Centre, a drone-powered instant drugs logistic delivery service Centre.
Performing the commissioning at Ndok, in Ogoja Local Government Area, while on a campaign trail of the Northern Senatorial District, Governor Ayade said the establishment of Zipline drugs logistic centre was part of his administration’s initiative to reduce mortality particularly in hard-to reach areas. Stressing the idea behind the project, Ayade, in company of his wife, Dr. Linda Ayade, his Deputy, Prof. Ivara Esu, APC governorship candidate Prince Bassey Edet Otu, his running mate, Pete Odey, as well as other candidates of the party, noted that “In other to have optimum value for our pharmaceutical factory, we needed to partner with Zipline for the major supply of our drugs. Zipline core business is essential supply of drugs and logistics services.”
Speaking on the benefits of the drone distribution centre, the governor further hinted that “this particular center in Ogoja will be serving over 300 health centers. Our primary healthcare structure will therefore reinvigorate and answer to all challenges of our people.”
The centre which MoU was signed in 2021 between the Cross River State government and Zipline, is a structure that will provide a fast and catalytic relationship between the state government’s health insurance agency code-named AyadeCare and Zipline company. The governor noted that as part of the synergy, Zipline would act as logistics consultant to receive drugs for supply chains in the state.
“So Zipline will deliver drugs to our primary health centers and other sensitive localities and even private health centers. Zipline will provide all support systems to deliver quality drugs which will pass the quality control systems. With Zipline, a journey that would have taken more than eight hours to deliver sensitive items like drugs, can now be delivered in 30 minutes. We have moved a little from water and drone to the air delivery system. I want to use this opportunity to tell Cross Riverians that this is one of the beautiful things our administration has brought. This is a clear difference from a bimodal system to a digital matter.”
The governor assured of government’s support to Zipline, adding that “Cross River State government will stand by you and provide a shoulder for you to lean on. We are ready to support you financially and provide drugs for you to continue to provide logistics support services so that you can save the lives of our citizens.”