Ghana Loses Medical Drone Crown as Nigeria Plans Massive Zipline Expansion

Ghana, once home to the world's largest medical drone delivery network, has seen its pioneering Zipline programme shrink considerably, even as Nigeria — which drew inspiration from Ghana's early success — prepares to overtake it on a massive scale.

The country's Zipline journey began in 2019 with a pilot centre at Omenako in the Eastern Region. By 2022, five additional distribution hubs had been established, collectively serving over 3,000 health facilities and delivering close to 1,000 consignments of urgent medical supplies daily — including vaccines, blood products, and essential medicines — to some of the country's most vulnerable communities.

That momentum has since stalled. Three of the six operational centres have been suspended after the government declined to continue funding them, leaving just three hubs active. The development has effectively cut off roughly half of the communities that previously relied on the service for emergency health supplies, raising concerns among public health advocates about the impact on rural and underserved populations.

Meanwhile, Nigeria — which launched its first Zipline centre in Kaduna in 2022 and subsequently added three more in Cross River and Bayelsa states — is pressing ahead with bold expansion plans. Those four centres already cover approximately 1,300 health facilities and reach an estimated 13 million Nigerians.

The Nigerian government and Zipline have now announced plans to construct 12 additional distribution centres in the near term, with a target of connecting up to 20,000 health facilities and serving nearly 100 million people by 2028. If realised, Nigeria would become, by a considerable margin, the country with the largest medical drone delivery network anywhere in the world — a title Ghana once held.

The contrasting fortunes of the two countries highlight the importance of sustained government commitment to health technology infrastructure. Ghana's story served as the proof of concept that attracted global attention and encouraged other nations to adopt drone delivery; the question now is whether Accra will recommit to the programme it helped pioneer.