COUNTRY FOCUS: TANZANIA
Throughout both the developed and developing world, access
to life-saving and critical health products is hampered by
what is known as the last-mile problem: the inability to deliver
needed medicine from a city to rural or remote locations due
to lack of adequate transportation, communication or supply
chain infrastructure.
Countries across East Africa are leading the world in developing
cutting edge solutions to the last-mile problem by pioneering
on-demand drone delivery of life-saving medicine. Tanzania
will make on-demand drone delivery of blood transfusion
supplies, emergency vaccines, HIV medications, anti-malarials
and critical medical supplies like sutures and IV tubes. Working
in conjunction with the Tanzanian Ministry of Health and
the country’s Medical Stores Department (MSD), Zipline will
establish four distribution centres across the country.
Zipline drone makes a delivery
drones to make up to 2,000 life-saving deliveries per day to
over one thousand health facilities, serving 10 million people
across the country. Dr Mpoki Ulisubisya, Permanent Secretary
of the Tanzania Ministry of Health, said, “Our vision is to have
a healthy society with improved social wellbeing that will
contribute effectively to personal and national development;
working with Zipline will help make that vision a reality.”
“We strive to ensure that all 5,640 public health facilities have
all the essential medicines, medical supplies and laboratory
reagents they need, wherever they are – even in the most hard
to reach areas” said Laurean Bwanakunu, Director General
of Tanzania’s Medical Stores Department. “But that mission
can be a challenge during emergencies, times of unexpected
demand, bad weather, or for small but critical orders. Using
drones for just-in-time deliveries will allow us to provide health
facilities with complete access to vital medical products no
matter the circumstance.”
The first distribution centre, located in Dodoma, the country’s
capital, will begin its first flights in the first quarter of 2018.
Three additional distribution centres, two in the north-western
corner of Tanzania near Mwanza and Lake Victoria, and one
in the Southern Highlands near Mbeya will follow, working in
close collaboration with civil and military aviation authorities.
Each of the four distribution centres will be equipped with up
to 30 drones and can make up to 500 on-demand delivery
flights a day. The drones can carry 1.5 kilos of cargo, cruising
at 110 kilometres an hour, and have a round trip range of
160 kilometres. Health workers place delivery orders by text
message and receive their package within 30 minutes on
average. Zipine’s drones take off and land at the distribution
centre only, requiring no additional infrastructure at the clinics
it serves.
Zipline’s commercial partnerships with Rwanda and Tanzania are
expected to save thousands of lives over the next several years.
BANKING AND FINANCE
FINCA accelerating financial inclusion
through fintech innovation in Tanzania
A
ccording to the 2014–2016
Tanzania National Financial
Inclusion Framework, the level of
formal financial access in the rural areas
of Tanzania is 8.5%, compared to 23%
in the urban areas. The totally excluded
rural population is 60%, compared to
45% in urban areas.
The ninth edition of the Tanzania
Economic Update highlighted the
country’s extraordinary progress in
bringing financial services to 62% of its
population today, compared to 11%
www.intelligentcio.com
in 2006, making it a regional leader in
the use of digital financial services and
putting it on a solid footing to achieve
Universal Financial Access by 2020.
Hundreds of thousands of low-income
people have gained access to financial
products including credit, savings and
money transfers through leveraging
technology to bring financial services
closer to the unbanked.
Issa Ngwegwe, Managing Director,
FINCA Tanzania
Despite these significant
developments, full financial sector
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