Drones are remote-controlled aerial vehicle used in diverse industries for different purposes. The use of drones in the transport industry ranges from e-commerce to transporting medicines, to food delivery, spare parts and agricultural produce.
The drone technology is saving lives in rural areas by providing ‘just-in-time’ delivery of medical items such as blood and medicines to different locations. It is also used to transport agricultural products which could get damaged during long journeys delayed by bad road networks.
Drones are used to perform last-mile delivery even in rural communities in Africa. The Rwanda government in partnership with Zipline Inc. launched the first drone airport for medical supplies of blood and medicines, vaccines and other products for emergency deliveries. Zipline recently partnered with the Ghana Health Service to provide medical drones for delivery to health facilities across the country.
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#ZiplineGhana will operate 24/7 from 4 distribution centers and deliver to 2,000 health facilities serving 12 million people across the country. pic.twitter.com/bISMKavZvk
— Zipline (@zipline) April 24, 2019
This technology is widely used in international organizations like DHL and Amazon to deliver goods to its customers in the e-commerce sector. The drone technology can be beneficial to Africa when widely adopted as most African countries are yet to develop policies to support this technology. Drones can also be used in precision farming, e-commerce, telecommunication, filming, journalism, surveillance and geographical mapping. Enforcing policies for the adoption of drone technology across the continent will improve not just deliveries, but other sectors as well.
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