According to www.techinafrica.com, the Government of Côte d’Ivoire has approved an 8-year public-private partnership with Zipline to expand its AI-powered healthcare logistics network from one distribution centre in Daloa to 10 nationwide — a move projected to serve 12 million people and more than 2,200 health facilities.
Public-Private Scale-Up Backed by U.S. Funding
The initiative is led by Côte d’Ivoire’s Ministry of Health under Minister Pierre N’Gou Dimba, and supported in part by the U.S. Department of State’s $150 million pay-for-performance award. This upfront infrastructure funding enables Zipline’s rapid scale-up, while the Government of Côte d’Ivoire commits to financing ongoing operations — ensuring long-term financial durability and national ownership of the system.
The eight-year partnership aligns with Côte d’Ivoire’s “Vision 2030” agenda and its goal of scaling Universal Health Coverage. Since launching in Daloa in 2023, Zipline has delivered over 3.55 million medical products — including approximately 2 million vaccine doses and 20,500 units of blood products — to more than 220 health facilities across five regions.
This early deployment contributed to an estimated 2,058 equivalent lives saved. The expansion will strengthen access in rural, remote and hard-to-reach areas — especially during the rainy season when road transport becomes unreliable.
AI-Driven Infrastructure and National Capacity Building
Each Zipline distribution centre integrates warehousing, cold storage, inventory management, autonomous drone delivery and digital tracking. Health facilities can place on-demand orders instead of relying solely on scheduled road deliveries or holding excess stock. The Ministry of Health gains real-time visibility into orders, inventory and deliveries — helping anticipate demand, reduce stockouts and expiries, protect the cold chain and respond faster in emergencies.
The network is projected to deliver an estimated return on investment of ~300%. It will also create hundreds of skilled jobs and expose tens of thousands of students, health workers and community members to advanced AI and robotics technology. As Caitlin Burton, CEO Zipline Africa, stated:
“Côte d’Ivoire is demonstrating what commercial diplomacy can achieve in practice: U.S. catalytic public funding and AI and robotics innovation combined with strong Ivorian government leadership and domestic investment. Together, we are building national-scale infrastructure that Côte d’Ivoire will lead and finance for the long term.”
Xavier Greusard, Vice President, Africa Go-To-Market at Zipline, added that the country is building “an autonomous logistics backbone operated by Ivorian talent”, supporting local capacity across pharmacy, aviation operations, maintenance, logistics, engineering and data management.
Source: techinafrica.com
Compiled from international media by the SCI.AI editorial team.
