ADF STAFF
Kenya and Rwanda are emerging as Africa’s leading nations for developing drone technology as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) play an increasing role in the continent’s daily life.
While drones have made an impact on Africa’s battlefields, they are also becoming key tools in agriculture, health care and telecommunications, particularly in remote areas where infrastructure is limited.
Rwanda, for example, uses drones to deliver blood to hospitals and clinics far from the country’s urban centers.
“We’ve seen a lot of improvement in terms of health care delivery, thanks to drones. Mainly around the fact that you’re able to save lives,” Paula Ingabire, Rwanda’s minister for Information and Communication Technology, told the United Nations’ Africa Renewal. “It usually took us about three hours to deliver blood, and now it’s come down to 26 minutes” using drones.
Rwanda began using drones as a public health tool during the COVID-19 pandemic. At that time, Rwandan health officials worked with the U.S. company Zipline to launch a system using fixed-wing UAVs to collect samples and deliver treatments. Rwanda’s success led to Ghana also adopting the Zipline system.
During the early days of the pandemic, drones of all types played key roles in delivering health warnings and disinfecting public spaces across the continent. Since then, civilian drone use has expanded as African companies stake their claim to the technology, developing African-made UAVs.
Companies such as Niger’s Drone Africa Service, Nigeria’s Zenvus, Rwanda’s Charis UAS and Zambia’s i-Drone Services Limited are all exploring ways to develop and deploy drone technology within Africa to solve African problems. In 2023, there were more than 300 licensed drone operators in Kenya alone.
“The drone business is actually quite significant,” Tendai Pasipanodya, co-founder of Kenya-based Drones Doing Good Alliance, recently told Africa 54.
Most of the companies are small and still need outside support to increase their capacities, Pasipanodya said. Her group is working to streamline drone regulations to boost the industry. It has also worked with a variety of international companies to develop its own Sumukai drone to show what drones can do for Kenya’s agricultural sector.
At the rate it is growing, Africa’s drone industry is likely to create more than 200,000 jobs by 2030, according to the World Bank. Some of those jobs are emerging in Kenya, where the Kenya Space Agency and the Kenya Civil Aviation Authority are working together to blaze new paths for drone technology in Africa.
Kenyan authorities are working with European aircraft maker Airbus’ subsidiary AALTO to develop a first-ever drone facility in Laikipia that will serve as home base for Zephyr drones that will conduct long-duration flights in the stratosphere.
AALTO officials say that Laikipia’s open terrain and temperate weather make it an ideal base for launching Zephyrs most of the year. The fixed-wing, solar-powered drones need long, flat runways to take off and land. Once airborne, the drones can serve as communication relays and high-resolution surveillance platforms, among other things.
“Kenya is also a high-tech, green economic pioneer in Africa that is highly attractive for foreign direct investment with a skilled workforce,” Tom Guilfoy, vice president of AALTO Port in Kenya, told Africa Renewal.
Kenyan authorities have set aside a portion of Konza Technopolis, an innovation hub under development between Nairobi and Mombasa, as a testing ground for new drone technology. Konza Technopolis hosted the Elevate Africa UAS Summit in mid-2024 to explore the opportunities and challenges of drone technology in Africa.
As drone technology evolves, some experts expect African countries to use drones to overcome bad roads and unreliable electrical grids in much the same way they have used mobile phone technology to overcome a lack of landline-based telecommunications.
“Africa is on the cusp of a drone revolution,” Mercy Makau, founder of Kenya’s Young Aviators Club of Africa, recently told CNBC Africa.
