Former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Tony Blair visited drone port located in Muhanga District, Southern Rwanda.   Blair toured the drone port on February 14 2018 and was impressed by the high technology used to deliver lifesaving blood to the remotest areas of Rwanda. Rwanda partnered with Zipline in 2016 to make the drone project practical and a lot has been achieved.

“The partnership has improved access to rare blood products like fresh frozen plasma, platelets, pediatric units and different blood types,” said Doctor Jeanine Condo, Director General of Rwanda Biomedical Centre.

“Through the partnership, Health workers saved an average of 3.1 hours per delivery and a total of 10,115 hours of time lost on road pick ups  were instead dedicated to patient care,” said Dr. Swaibu Gatare, Division Manager of National Centre for Blood Transfusion (NCBT).

In 2017, using drones resulted in 3246 blood deliveries with 929 emergency deliveries. A total of 6159 blood units were delivered on time to save patients.

Government of Rwanda –Zipline partnership led to the World’s first ever national scale drone delivery network. Rwanda was recently awarded with the 2017 Index Award Body Category, in Denmark because of using drone technology.

At the Muhanga drone launch, Rwanda President Paul Kagame said, "Technology becomes relevant and meaningful when it works for people and addresses challenges they face daily.”