Unlocking drone potential in East Africa’s aviation

East Africa is projected to be one of the fastest-growing regions on the continent. Despite this development, its infrastructure ranks behind that of southern and western Africa across a range of indicators.

The current gaps in infrastructure are vast, amounting to billions of dollars annually, providing a strong impetus to seek new generational complementary solutions that leverage the field of technology and innovation enabling solutions for travel, transport, security, and supply chains.

According to a study by the East African Business Council on the costs and benefits of open skies, liberalisation between Burundi, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, and Rwanda could result in an additional 46,320 jobs and $202.1 million per year in GDP.

There is an opportunity to innovate so that the market is open even as technology continues to grow and play a larger role across consumers.

Having taken a leaf out of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) and the Single African Air Transport Market in place, both of which are aimed at economic growth and the liberalisation of the air transport in the region and across Africa, drones provide an enabling environment to accelerate innovation, knowledge exchange and fast track solutions to address current gaps.

We cannot anticipate the full range of industrial drone applications yet. Some are obvious: Supplying commercial drone delivery by…