The Chief Executive Officer of Zipline Ghana, Daniel Kweku Merki, has dismissed public claims suggesting that the company routinely transports condoms to health facilities, clarifying that such deliveries make up a tiny fraction of the operation’s work.
According to him, the allegation has been exaggerated and does not reflect the reality of Zipline’s core mandate, which focuses on delivering critical medical supplies, especially to hard-to-reach communities.
Addressing the concerns, Merki explained that condom deliveries account for only “1 in 20,000 flights”, representing 0.005% of all deliveries. He stressed that even in those rare cases, condoms were never transported alone.
“With the distribution of condoms, we did that in 1 out of 20,000 flights. This means we have never transported condoms alone. Even in those flights, we add other family-planning supplies,” he said.
Merki added that Zipline works strictly in collaboration with the Ministry of Health, which approves all medical supplies before dispatch.
“The Ministry of Health, through deep collaboration, is in agreement with what we are delivering. The aim is to make critical deliveries possible,” he noted.
Explaining further, the CEO said Zipline conducts needs assessments for each health facility before dispatching supplies. This ensures deliveries are based on verified demand rather than assumptions about what communities require.
“We have to look into the facilities and make assessments on what each facility really needs,” he said.
He also disclosed that because Zipline’s priority is on lifesaving commodities such as blood, vaccines and emergency medications, the addition of other items is tightly regulated.
“We deliver to hard-to-reach communities and supply critical commodities, so adding another commodity is hard,” Merki explained.
Merki stated that the number of condom deliveries is so insignificant that he is unaware of the specific facilities that may have received them.
“Since the figure for distributing condoms is not significant, I do not even know the areas where they were taken,” he added.
He emphasized that Zipline’s focus is not on condom distribution and therefore the public should not misconstrue the company’s operations.
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