The United States Government is set to allocate $150 million to Zipline International Inc. to expand access to life-saving medical supplies in Africa.
The money is expected to support the delivery of blood, vaccines, and essential medicines to as many as 15,000 health facilities across Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, and Rwanda.
Jeff Graham of the U.S. Department of State disclosed this information during a U.S Embassy digital press briefing on Tuesday, December 2, 2025.
He explained that the allocation forms part of the U.S. Department of State’s new America First Global Health Strategy.
The initiative seeks to increase value for U.S. taxpayers by reducing waste, eliminating dependency, and ensuring development assistance aligns with U.S. foreign policy priorities.
Mr. Graham emphasised that collaborating with Zipline, an American robotics and drone-technology company, is crucial for modernising the U.S. approach to global health.
Per the agreement, the U.S. will support the expansion of Zipline’s American-made advanced robotics to address slow and unreliable logistics challenges that prevent timely access to essential health supplies in rural communities.
In his remarks, Mr. Graham stated that the support aims at strengthening health systems’ ability to respond to disease outbreaks and emergencies while simultaneously supporting U.S. manufacturing and creating jobs across partner countries.
Expansion and Impact
Meanwhile, Zipline is slated to open new distribution centers across the five participating countries, with Rwanda projected to double its daily delivery capacity, ultimately helping the network reach up to 130 million people in Africa.
On her part, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Zipline Africa, Caitlin Burton, noted that Zipline operates autonomous, all-weather drones day and night, providing a centralized, on-demand medical-supply chain far more efficient than traditional logistics systems.
She also revealed that the new U.S. partnership is expected to enable Zipline to expand its services to national levels across all five countries, creating an estimated 1,000 jobs and generating more than $1 billion in annual economic gains across partner nations.
Ms. Burton said the primary goal is to strengthen health systems capable of ending preventable deaths from HIV transmission to maternal mortality and severe malnutrition using a single, high-performing national logistics network.
According to her, the U.S. provides the initial capital support while the governments cover the fixed and predictable long-term operating costs.
She explained that this approach allows the benefiting countries to replace multiple expensive, disease-specific programs with one unified delivery infrastructure that addresses various health challenges simultaneously.
Ms. Burton commented that this delivery system is designed to operate nationwide at the scale needed to deliver medical product volumes sufficient to genuinely improve health outcomes. She added that they now possess the knowledge to overcome challenges like maternal mortality and malnutrition, and the network has been built specifically to meet those critical goals.
She further stated that by funding this system, they aren’t supporting merely a single program or a one-time intervention. Instead, they are guaranteeing that essential medical products reach patients wherever they are, including communities where distance or social stigma might deter people from seeking necessary care.
