Côte d’Ivoire Approves Eight-Year Zipline Deal for 10 Drone Hubs

The Government of the Republic of Côte d’Ivoire has approved an eight-year public-private partnership with Zipline to expand the country’s AI-enabled healthcare logistics network from one distribution centre in Daloa to ten nationwide, Zipline announced in a statement datelined Abidjan on September 21, 2026. The partnership is led by Côte d’Ivoire’s Ministry of Health under Minister of Health, Public Hygiene and Universal Health Coverage Pierre N’Gou Dimba, and is supported in part by the U.S. Department of State’s $150 million pay-for-performance award. Zipline characterized the buildout as one of Africa’s largest national deployments of AI and robotics for healthcare.

Once fully deployed, the network is projected to serve more than 2,200 health facilities and more than 12 million people, according to the announcement. Zipline also projects the expansion will create hundreds of skilled jobs, deliver an estimated return on investment of roughly 300%, and expose tens of thousands of students, health workers, and community members to advanced AI and robotics technology.

The expansion aligns with Côte d’Ivoire’s “Vision 2030” agenda to scale Universal Health Coverage (Couverture Maladie Universelle) by bringing blood products, vaccines, essential medicines, and emergency supplies to the communities that need them. It is intended to strengthen access in rural, remote, and hard-to-reach areas, including during the rainy season, when roads can become difficult to use.

Financing Split and the U.S. State Department Award

Under the financing structure, the U.S. government will provide upfront infrastructure funding to Zipline to enable the scale-up, and the government of Côte d’Ivoire has committed to paying for ongoing operations. The announcement described the approach as reflecting Côte d’Ivoire’s long-standing commitment to building self-reliant, efficient health systems and said it is intended to keep the expansion financially durable, nationally operated, and integrated into the country’s broader strategy for resilient, technology-driven healthcare.

On November 25, 2025, the U.S. Department of State announced an agreement to provide up to $150 million to Zipline International Inc. to expand access to medical supplies, including blood and medicines, reaching as many as 15,000 health facilities across Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, and Rwanda. The department said the initiative uses milestone-based payments and co-financing commitments with partner governments in line with the America First Global Health Strategy, and that it supports Zipline’s American-made advanced robotics.

Daloa Operations and the Distribution Model

Zipline launched in Daloa in 2023 in partnership with the Government of Côte d’Ivoire. Since that launch, the company reports delivering more than 3.55 million medical products to more than 220 health facilities across five regions. Those deliveries include approximately 2 million vaccine doses and 20,500 units of blood products, which the company says contributed to an estimated 2,058 equivalent lives saved.

Each Zipline distribution centre combines warehousing, cold storage, inventory management, autonomous drone delivery, and digital tracking. Health facilities can order products when they are needed rather than depending solely on scheduled road deliveries or holding large quantities of stock. According to the company, the Ministry of Health gains real-time visibility into orders, inventory, and deliveries, helping it anticipate demand, reduce stockouts and expiries, protect the cold chain, and respond faster in emergencies.

“Every Ivorian, wherever they live, should be able to receive the essential health products they need quickly and reliably,” Dimba said. “Since Zipline began operating in Daloa, we have seen shorter delivery times, improved availability of vital products and stronger support for our health facilities. By expanding to 10 distribution centres, Côte d’Ivoire is taking a proven model nationwide and bringing essential healthcare directly to the communities that need it.”

Caitlin Burton, CEO for Zipline Africa, said the partnership shows commercial diplomacy in practice by combining U.S. catalytic public funding and AI and robotics innovation with Ivorian government leadership and domestic investment. She said the national-scale infrastructure will be led and financed by Côte d’Ivoire for the long term, and that the partnership will strengthen outbreak response, support disaster response, and contribute to economic growth.

“Côte d’Ivoire is not simply adding delivery capacity; it is building an autonomous logistics backbone operated by Ivorian talent,” said Xavier Greusard, Vice President, Africa Go-To-Market at Zipline. “The network will support the growth of an Ivorian ecosystem around drones, AI and autonomous logistics, with local teams trained across pharmacy, aviation operations, maintenance, logistics, engineering and data management.”

Zipline describes itself as the world’s largest and most experienced autonomous delivery service. The company states that it operates on four continents, makes a delivery somewhere in the world every 20 seconds, serves more than 5,000 hospitals and health facilities, and has completed nearly 3 million commercial deliveries.