(Agence Ecofin) – In Kenya, people living in remote areas face a problem of access to essential health care. As a solution, the start-up Swift Lab offers drones capable of ensuring the delivery of medical supplies over several kilometers.
Swift Lab is a logistics start-up that uses drones to deliver medical supplies to hard-to-reach areas in Kenya. It has developed 2 drones, one at medium range with a capacity of 4 kg and can cover up to 70 kilometers, and another at short range which allows smaller loads to be carried for 30 minutes. These drones have the advantage of ensuring service day and night, thus allowing rapid intervention in the most urgent cases.
Swift Lab’s Milk of the poppy drone lift-off coming soon……will be updating you. #dronesforhealth #droneforgood #covidresponsedrone @CountrywideHubs @UNDPKenya @unesco @UNDPKenya @UKinKenya @MoICTKenya @CiscoCSR @konzatech pic.twitter.com/I2bOuak9T2
— Swift Lab (@SwiftLabAi) July 7, 2020
Swift Lab co-founder James Munyoki Kiua wanted to use the knowledge he gained while studying abroad to solve local issues:
« Our users are my family (my diabetic mother in a remote village in Kenya), my neighbors, my cousins, in short, people we know […] We will push other African countries to develop their own solutions », He affirmed.
Much of the population lives without regular access to essential health services. According to the World Economic Forum, 44% of the planet’s inhabitants live in rural areas, and only a third of them live within 2 km of an all-season road. Confronted with health problems, they find themselves in a delicate situation, due to limited hospital infrastructures and faulty transport networks.
Drones thus appear as an emerging solution to fill these gaps. These devices have the potential to ensure safer and faster delivery of medicines and vaccines, thereby bypassing difficulties in logistics and road infrastructure.
@Swiftlabai had the pleasure to host @countrywidehub in our space. We had a great discussion on delivering outstanding cargo drones for transporting medical supplies and other inspiring research in agriculture & mapping and infrastructural inspection.@konzatech #madeinKenya pic.twitter.com/AgNEqHG1Eh
— Swift Lab (@SwiftLabAi) February 18, 2021
While Swift Lab has been around since 2013, it wasn’t until 2020 that it was officially recognized following drone regulations in the country. It announced the launch of its very first drone for March 12, 2021. Earlier this month, it was selected among the 15 start-ups awarded by the local competition “The Great Covid-19 Innovation Challenge”.
In the future, Swift Lab intends to become a multifunctional platform and expand its offering to precision agriculture, transport of spare parts and inspection of infrastructure among others.
Aïsha Moyouzame
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