HARARE, Apr. 17 (NewsDay Live) – A local logistics firm, Drone Solutions, has launched a nationwide drone delivery programme targeting critical gaps in healthcare supply chains, with delivery times for essential medicines expected to drop to under 30 minutes in some cases.
The company said the initiative, unveiled Thursday, will deploy a specialised drone fleet to transport emergency medical supplies to remote and hard-to-reach communities, where poor road infrastructure has long delayed access to care.
Drone Solutions said the service will prioritise high-value, time-sensitive cargo including vaccines, blood products, pathology samples, anti-rabies treatments and maternal health medicines.
“Deliveries that previously took hours by road can now be completed in less than 30 minutes,” the company said, adding that the system is designed to ensure “clinical precision and zero spoilage” of sensitive supplies.
The rollout is expected to have its greatest impact in rural areas, where clinics are often cut off during the rainy season due to flooding and damaged roads.
In a significant regional push, the company also announced it is taking over drone delivery operations in Malawi, Mozambique and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), as it moves to establish an integrated cross-border medical logistics network.
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Drone Solutions said the expansion will streamline the movement of urgent cargo such as anti-venom, vaccines and blood samples across multiple countries under a unified operational system.
At full scale, the Zimbabwe programme is projected to create up to 200 jobs, including drone pilots, hub operators, battery technicians and route planners.
The initiative will be backed by Drone University, a Civil Aviation Authority of Zimbabwe (CAAZ)-licensed training institution tasked with developing local drone aviation skills.
Zimbabwe has faced persistent last-mile delivery challenges in remote provinces, with unreliable transport networks slowing emergency response times. The adoption of drone technology is expected to significantly improve access to critical healthcare services.
Drone Solutions has called on government, private sector and international partners to support the rollout, saying the model could redefine medical supply delivery across the region.