Kaduna State government will soon commence delivery of medical supplies by drones to hard-to-reach areas before the end of this year.
Governor Nasir El-Rufai, who disclosed this in a media chat with pressmen, stated that the first delivery site would be located in Pambegua and the building has already been completed.
He said Kaduna State was still discussing with security agencies and aviation authorities for clearance before the deployment of the medical supply drones.
El-Rufai also disclosed that Zipline, a United States-based company, which will operate the service, is already training Kaduna State citizens in Ghana to operate the drones.
The governor said, apart from the Pambegua delivery site, the drone delivery service will operate in two other sites, covering the entire state.
“The drones will be delivering medical supplies 24 hours a day, seven days a week, from three distribution centers,” he said, adding that “each centre will be equipped with 30 drones.”
According to El-Rufai, the drone service can deliver medical consumables like essential medicines, blood and vaccines to more than 1,000 health facilities serving millions of people across Kaduna State.
“Bottlenecks like bad roads, expiry of products due to overstocking, unavailability of medical commodities at health facilities during emergencies and products not getting to remote areas will all be minimized when Zipline’s facilities commence operations,” he promised.
Kaduna State government and Zipline signed an MoU in February 2021 to revolutionalise the supply of medical consumables to health facilities and the response of medical personnel to emergencies.