Zipline made its first commercial delivery in Kaduna on August 15, 2022. Since then, the center has made more than 13,507 commercial deliveries containing more than 224,778 vaccine doses including 154,305 doses of COVID-19 vaccines, 1,159,176 units of medical products and 407,889 units of consumables to facilities in Gimi-Tasha, Crossing HC, Kargi, Gedage, Kaibi, Tumbau, Karre, Garun Kurama, Tashan Tsamiya, Kaware amongst others.

“Before Zipline, facilities providing basic healthcare programs had to travel far to get drugs for registered clients when there was a shortage,” says Idris Isa, the Director-In-Charge of the Karreh Primary Health Center. “It was often a challenge to replenish deliveries, which always took longer than expected. But since we started working with Zipline, we can just place orders, and they deliver them in record time. The difference is clear, and the supply has been incredible to save more lives.”

Isa adds that Zipline deliveries have helped healthcare workers improve patient care. Since working with Zipline, he has noticed better outcomes for patients being treated for hypertension, pneumonia, measles, HIV, cholera, meningitis, yellow fever, malaria, tuberculosis and pregnancy complications.

Part of the reason Zipline improved outcomes, Isa says, is because instant access to medical supplies allowed staff to treat patients at the health center rather than referring them elsewhere.

He observed that the previous rate of referrals was a major deterrent for people to visit the health facility.

He also commended Zipline and the government for introducing the technology that has saved lives, especially in areas where healthcare access remains a challenge.

Health officials say essential drug delivery to various health facilities in the state has improved leading to increase in outpatient cases, shortened delay time in access to healthcare etc. This has transformed how medical supplies are delivered to health facilities within the state, impacting those in underserved communities.

Idris Isa is not alone in his assessment of the Zipline support. Wada Yunusa, the Director-In-Charge of Ibada Health Center praised Zipline for the timely delivery of critical medical interventions that has saved many lives, especially in cases of emergency.

According to him, “Zipline delivery to the health center has been fast and efficient. Their timely support is enabling us to deliver on our mandate with ease knowing that even when we need medication in times of emergencies, they will come to the rescue”.

Over the years, Zipline has demonstrated capacity to work with governments and health systems to enable health supply chains to become more efficient.

Commenting on the impact of the service, Kwasu Kanchok, the Community Lead of Zipline in Kaduna State, indicated that the drone delivery system has immensely contributed to the overall health delivery at the facilities we serve. .

“More than 300 health facilities within 80 -100 kilometers from the host local government Kubau to Galadimawa PHC, Kauru LGA to Lere LGA, and the other communities get their essential drugs through Zipline,” Kanchok said. “By the support of the State Government of Kaduna, we are removing most of the access barriers that inhibit health delivery in the area. Health centers do not need to wait days before getting medical supplies. Now, they can get the supplies they need within 30 minutes.”

Ms Catherine Odiase, General Manager of Zipline Nigeria, said, “We remain committed to ensuring that the people of Kaduna can access the care they need at health facilities. And in addition to creating immediate access to medical supplies and providing coherent data to the facilities, we are also contributing to driving down all forms of mortality rates within Kaduna. In addition to Zipline’s technology and team, we have the leadership of the Government of Kaduna State to thank for this successful partnership.

Zipline, the global leader in instant logistics deliveries, has become a household name for immediate transport of medical logistics, with over 500,000 deliveries of medical commodities, over 5-million products delivered and serving over 25 million customers across the globe.

The Kaduna State government believes this partnership is a tremendous opportunity to improve the overall health system and create employment opportunities for the citizens.

The firm warehouses and delivers vital supplies to the last mile using autonomous unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) otherwise referred to as drones.

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), nearly two billion people across the world lack reliable access to quality essential medical products such as blood and vaccines due to gaps in supply chains and poor infrastructure.

A functioning supply chain complete with procurement, appropriate warehousing, and end-to-end transportation, is critical to making sure that people have access to essential, quality medicine.

So, Zipline has keyed into this huge market. The company already has a hub in Nigeria and has set a target to build six more. This is following successes it recorded in Rwanda and Ghana.

With a report of 300,000 commercial deliveries averaging 1,000 per day and over 3.3 million units of products delivered since its launch in Rwanda, Zipline has touched the lives of 40 million people.

Facts:

With its current-generation aircraft offering fast and reliable delivery, Zipline prides itself as delivering:

• 80 km service radius (one-way)
• <30 min to deliver
• 1.8 Kg max payload
• Hundreds of deliveries per day
• Reliable in times of natural disasters like hurricane force winds, heavy rain, and extreme temperatures
• Zero-emission transportation powered by renewable energy
• Best-in-class safety standard rooted in design, protocols, and flight experience

How Zipline works

From the demo video shared by the time, when the team receives an order, the aircraft is packed and launcher accelerates the aircraft to 70 mph in 0.3 secs

Then, the aircraft navigates and flies itself to the drop location. The aircraft descends, drops the package, and returns. Upon return, a cable catches the aircraft’s tail. It doesn’t touch the ground.

This is impressive, and supports the claim that Zipline offers ‘best-in-class safety standard rooted in design, protocols, and flight experience’.

World-Class Warehousing

Basically, a warehouse is critical for medical service and other deliveries; receiving goods efficiently, storing temperature-sensitive products correctly, picking and packing. And this is where Zipline plays a major role.  

Logistics chains for pharmaceutical products need to meet the highest security and quality standards. That is only possible with a distribution centre equipped to meet international standards and Zipline demonstrates this through the construction of GDP-compliant warehousing storage in a location where it operates. This helps to maintain ambient, cold-chain dependent products, and products with unique storage requirements.

They also have equipped supplier integration standard operating procedures to manage the flow of inventory and digital invoicing, at scale.

The Fulfillment & Customer Service centre sees receiving, picking, packing, shipping, order taking & management, training & aftercare, 24/7 customer support.

Nigeria:

On Sunday night October 16 2022, BBC had a screaming headline: “Nigeria floods: ‘Overwhelming’ disaster leaves more than 600 people dead”. Well, this situation calls for urgent attention and assistance that the people can get. That is where Zipline comes in to deliver essential goods to safeguard lives and property.

Recently Nigeria became the third African country to use Zipline’s drone delivery system following national-scale operations in Ghana and Rwanda, with operations in Kenya and Cote d’Ivoire set to be launched later this year.

One example of how they did it in Ghana: Seasonal rainfall coupled with annual dam spillage in the Northernmost part of Ghana often leads to the destruction of roads and bridges which makes communities inaccessible by roads.

During this time communities are entirely cut off from relevant health supplies causing residents to seek medical help in unapproved places.

Zipline is now the primary supplier of medical commodities to these areas and others that are cut off due to difficulties in the geographical terrain. As a result, facilities do not have to battle with lack of medical commodities.

In Nigeria, Kaduna State has begun to procure medical commodities – vaccines, medicines, and blood – through the government supply chain and distribute them via the newly established Zipline distribution centre located at Pambegua. This sounds good! And I heard that Bayelsa is coming on stream too.

With Zipline’s autonomous drone delivery service, health facilities can receive products within 45 minutes or less, rather than several days when using traditional, complex procurement systems.

Nigeria and other developing countries often lack adequate supply, correct doses and affordable medication at their health centres. In some cases, health ministries set up semi-autonomous entities such as a National Level Medical Store and Regional Medical Stores, to purchase, store and distribute medicine and medical supplies to health centres, hospitals and dispensaries across the country.

I had a brief chat with Catherine Odiase, the General Manager of Zipline Nigeria on the company’s plan for the country:

Zipline in Nigeria: What are the plans?

We are happy to be here in Nigeria after starting in Rwanda and expanding to Ghana. We are setting out with Kaduna where we are setting up fews hubs. One of them was launched in June and started commercial operations in August. Right now, we are saving lives in Kaduna. We have done over 3,000 deliveries so far.

How will Zipline’s operations benefit the economy?

Like I said, we have set up in Rwanda and Ghana; more locations are coming up in Kenya and a few others.

In any economy where we launch services we go there with a three point agenda, namely, transformation which entails transforming the healthcare system in the State where we operate. Secondly, saving lives; like I mentioned earlier, we are doing that in Nigeria already. Thirdly, building capacity for the indigenes of the State.

We employ the ‘locals’ in our operations in different hubs. We have done that in Kaduna and will replicate the same in Bayelsa by the time the hub is launched. We have other States in view; we are taking them one at a time.

What has been the experience with Kaduna operations?

It has been amazing. We have received results and testimonies. I mentioned one during my presentation when a woman was in labour and order came to our facility.

We had to deliver the medication in 10 minutes. In other words, we were able to save two lives within 10 minutes.

We are also creating a dashboard for data gathering that will assist operators in the health sector; not just for the facilities, but those in the government health sector will have enough data to work with. In cases of epidemic, the government can have data to work with, because they know what is being delivered in these facilities.

I have also said that we are creating employment. For instance, we have up to 35 drones in each hub; depending on the size of the location. Therefore, we hire people from the State, particularly from the sub-community where we are located.

We do capacity building because the people we are employing are trained in the academy on how to operate the system.

Each area has its peculiar challenges, what were your initial challenges in Kaduna?

The challenge, generally, is getting regulators to grant us the right to fly. It is not just regulations; we need security clearance for us to bring some of the equipment to the State.

So, before we can clear the equipment; even the aircraft, we need security clearance. And that is part of what we do in every State we enter. 

Watch on YouTube:

The health facilities are among several medical centres in Kaduna earmarked to be rolled onto Zipline’s logistics platform for the speedy dispensing of healthcare.

The distribution centre, located in Pambegua, Kaduna state, is the first hub to be opened in Nigeria to support the government’s effort to send medical logistics to health facilities within the state.

Speaking after the scheduled delivery of vaccines to the facility, Chongfilawos Irimiya, a medical staff at Galadimawa PHC, said, “We thank God for Zipline. We are in the bush and cut off. We used to go very far to the Apex centres to get our vaccines, which is very stressful and uncomfortable, but with Zipline, all that is in the past”.

Since Zipline commissioned the distribution hub in June 2022, it has been working with the aviation regulatory authority to finalise the required approvals to operate these autonomous aerial vehicles in Kaduna.

The successfully completion of the approval processes paved the way for the start of commercial flights.

The first of three distribution hubs of Zipline to be sited in Kaduna has the capacity of delivering medical supplies to over 500 health facilities within an 80km radius at a speed of 110km/hr rain/shine: day/night.

Zipline also has the capacity to deliver other products including animal health vaccines and e-commerce products.

In February 2021, Zipline announced plans to construct three distribution centres in Kaduna State, Nigeria, supported by the Federal government.

The state’s intent is to use Zipline’s service to transport health products, including blood, medication, and routine vaccines. In May 2021, Zipline announced a similar agreement with Cross River State, followed by the announcement of another agreement with Bayelsa State.

In a conversation with Ms. Catherine Odiase, the General Manager of Zipline Nigeria, she commended the regulatory authorities for the fruitful engagements leading to the commencement of flight operations, adding that ” the company is pleased to have received the necessary regulatory approval to be able to support the health needs of the community”.

She added that “our technology has proven to be a great resource in helping governments achieve access to universal healthcare. By this, we remain committed to ensuring that we support the government of Kaduna in meeting this target by way of efficient delivery of medical commodities and other products as will be agreed, to all parts of the state within 40minutes or less from our distribution hub”. She pledged the readiness of Zipline to continue to “partner with governments to ensure no one in the country is left behind in access to the basic healthcare delivery services”.

Zipline’s drone delivery system is dedicated to expanding access to goods around the globe. Over the years, the company has demonstrated its ability to work with governments and health systems to transform health supply chains to be accessible and work more effectively.

Nigeria is the third African country to use Zipline services, following national-scale operations in Ghana and Rwanda with operations in Kenya and Cote d’Ivoire yet to be launched later this year.

In total, the company has made more than 370,897 commercial deliveries containing more than five million units of vaccines and other medical products to facilities in Rwanda, Ghana, Japan and the United States, where it is based.