A drone sets off to deliver medicine. Photograph: Pete Marovich/Bloomberg/Getty Preliminary results from the Lilongwe trial suggest the technology has potential, not just for health but for farming, emergencies and other humanitarian needs, and not just for Malawi, says Unicef.
UAV enthusiasts also stress a range of potential commercial uses, from Mobisols spare-part delivery plan for pay-as-you-go solar equipment to mine blasting analysis and infrastructure inspection. And just last week Facebook marked the first flight of Aquila, an unmanned, solar-powered aircraft designed to beam down affordable internet in remote places.
But its not always smooth flying, with some urging caution amid the hype. There is some potential in drones, but we need to not get overly focused on the technology and rather look at the problem youre trying to solve, says Josiah Mugambi, executive director of the iHub, a technology and innovation space in Nairobi.
If its for niche uses, it may not be very scalable as a business. One of the obstacles has been security considerations people are worried about how they might be used and that has put the brakes on it a bit.
Others are confident of the long-term potential for drone technology. Mteto Nyati, chief executive of MTN South Africa the countrys second largest telecoms firm and part of the largest mobile operator in sub-Saharan Africa, says drones represent a huge growth opportunity for us.
All those devices will have a sim but there will also be applications linked to that sim that come up with solutions beyond the drones themselves, says Nyati. In South Africa, there is already clarity around licensing. It will be very easy to do the same across a number of other countries.
I think drones are the next big thing, says Mbwana Alliy, founder and managing partner of Savannah Fund, an early-stage seed fund focused on emerging tech companies in Africa.
There are big possibilities beyond the obvious delivery and logistics potential (from medical supplies to retail) around agriculture in helping farmers understand their land, yields better, around mapping, in construction and mining, even in market research.
Drones may well bring the most exciting potential to marry the real and vast physical challenges of Africa with the digital revolution.
Additional reporting by John Vidal in Lilongwe