Zipline, the Washington-backed logistics firm pioneering large-scale drone deliveries in Africa, plans to extend its presence on the continent by rolling out services trialled in Rwanda, an executive told Semafor.
The company plans to include livestock insemination in its expansion plans across Africa, its country director for Rwanda, Pierre Kayitana, said in an interview. The move comes after a recently published study by company researchers claimed that a combination of Zipline’s cold-chain storage and drone delivery system caused a 17% rise in farmers’ income from increased piglets and pork production.
Rwanda is Zipline’s largest office in Africa but also operates in Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Kenya, and Nigeria. The company is in “advanced talks” with Lesotho to begin offering drone deliveries, Kayitana said. It is also negotiating with authorities in Kigali, Abidjan and Abuja to make its presence in each country nationwide by setting up more distribution centers for deliveries, he said.