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By Akpan David, Calabar
The Governor of Cross River State, Professor Ben Ayade has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with a Ghanaian based firm, Zip line, to begin delivery of essential drugs to hard to reach communities of the state.
The feat will take effect by early week of August 2021.
“In 90 days, we will start the delivery of essential drugs to hard to reach areas facilitated by drone delivery systems”, he told journalists in his office in Calabar.
Ayade said Cross River was playing a special role in the heath sector, maintaining that his government has committed its energy and resources towards improvement of medical structures in the state as well as individual health.
He said his government is partnering a drone delivery company, Zipline, to supply the medicals to the communities.
He said: “I want to thank the entire Zipline team for your commitment to this course and we are here to provide you all the necessary support to see that you start on a strong footing.”
He added that Zipline will be a major stakeholder in quality healthcare delivery in the state, especially when the state owned pharmaceutical company, Calapharm, starts running.
Explaining that the deliveey time by the drone is just 30 minutes, Zipline’s Senior Vice President, Daniel Marfo commended Ayade’s strides in the health sector and pledged his company’s commitment to sustaining the tempo.
Earlier, the state Commissioner for Health, Dr. Betta Edu, described the drone delivery system as a game changer “in ensuring that medical supplies, drugs, vaccines can be delivered to health centres in real time and in the shortest possible time so that people can get help when they need it.”
