- Title: Smart cool boxes help Nigeria's vaccine campaign
- Date: 1st April 2021
- Summary: OTA, NIGERIA (RECENT) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF DISPATCH RIDER ARRIVING AT THE IJALIYE HEALTH CENTRE IN THE EWUPE COMMUNITY RIDER ENTERING HEALTH CENTRE WITH BIKE SIGNAGE READING (English): 'GRICD' COMMUNITY CENTRE BUILDING WITH SIGNAGE READING (English): 'COMMUNITY HEALTH CENTRE' VARIOUS OF DISPATCH RIDER REQUESTING FOR PARCEL FROM A NURSE, VICTORIA FENUGA FENUGA PUTTING SAMPLE IN CARRIAGE BAG FENUGA HANDING SAMPLE TO RIDER FENUGA LOOKING ON FENUGA CLOSING STORAGE BOX VARIOUS OF COURIER PUTTING SAMPLE INTO GRICD COLD BOX RIDER LEAVING (SOUNDBITE) (English) NURSE, VICTORIA FENUGA, SAYING: "Before we refer patients to the lab but now when they come here, they make the job easier for us in taking the samples to the lab and it eases our service delivery." VARIOUS OF DISPATCH RIDER DRIVING AROUND EWUPE COMMUNITY LAGOS, NIGERIA (RECENT) (REUTERS) GRICD FOUNDER, OGHENETEGA IORTIM INTRODUCING HIMSELF SAYING: "My name is Iortim Oghenetega and I am the founder at Gricd. Basically what we are trying to do at Gricd is to bridge the trust gap that exist in cold chain space in Africa." VARIOUS OF IORTIM HOLDING A MOTE, SAYING: “This is what we call a mote, the mote is basically are IoT (Internet of Things) devices or data loggers that can communicate in real time.†VARIOUS OF A GRICD COOLING BOX VARIOUS OF IORTIM SHOWING GRICD'S ONLINE MONITORING SYSTEM LAPTOP SCREEN SHOWING ORDER DETAILS (SOUNDBITE) (English) FOUNDER, GRICD, OGHENETEGA IORTIM, SAYING: " I built a solution for post-harvest losses and then we started to see synergies or applications in use cases across other sectors which included veterinary medicine for vaccine distribution for cattle and also then saw healthcare and also saw was also a big problem in healthcare so that involved the company from building from post-harvest losses to actually solving fundamental human problems such as access to critical medications that are temperature controlled." VARIOUS OF GRICD ENGINEER COUPLING CHIP INTO BOARD ENGINEER DOTTING A BOARD GAS COMPONENTS VARIOUS OF MOTHERBOARD ON DISPLAY ENGINEER OPENING COOLING BOX COOLING BOX INTERIOR ENGINEER CLOSING BOX (SOUNDBITE) (English) FOUNDER, GRICD, OGHENETEGA IORTIM, SAYING: "If you look at the African terrain you know that some of the major challenges, one, communication but secondly which is more importantly, is the lack of access to grid which is access to power and so for that when you look back you'll see that there were challenges around accessing ice packs or ice gels that are required to pre-condition when transporting things like vaccine or samples from last mile to the city. With this now, which is like a solar-powered battery-powered device that doesn't require all those...so without the infrastructure, this works." LAGOS, NIGERIA (RECENT) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF DISPATCH RIDER ENTERING RESEARCH CENTRE SIGNAGE READING 'NIGERIAN INSTITUTE OF MEDICAL RESEARCH DISPATCH RIDER HANDING OVER TO LABORATORY ATTENDANT VARIOUS OF LABORATORY ATTENDANT VIEWING SAMPLES DUTSE, NIGERIA (RECENT) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (English) RESEARCH FELLOW, NIGERIAN INSTITUTE OF MEDICAL RESEARCH LAGOS, DR. SAMUEL AMOO, SAYING: "The problem is you cannot assure the integrity of what you are moving, yet they are bringing something that will tell you from the point of move, what it is and when you get to the destination you know what it is and if it is not what you expect you can actually say from the readings that it is not what.. so it's creative and innovative and is something that should be accepted by all." OTA, NIGERIA (RECENT) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF EWUPE COMMUNITY SCENES VARIOUS OF FENUGA SHOWING VACCINE IN THE HOSPITAL REQUIRING COOL STORAGE
- Embargoed: 15th April 2021 11:33
- Keywords: Cool chain Health care Storage Transportation Vaccine
- Location: OTA, LAGOS AND DUTSE, NIGERIA
- City: OTA, LAGOS AND DUTSE, NIGERIA
- Country: Nigeria
- Topics: Africa,Health/Medicine
- Reuters ID: LVA001E6OWDHZ
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: After a bumpy ride along dirt roads, a motorbike courier has arrived at the Ijaliye Heath Centre, in Nigeria’s southwestern Ogun State.
He's here to collect blood samples.
It serves 20,000 people from the surrounding Ewupe community, but the limited laboratory facilities here mean samples must be sent out to specialist labs for testing.
Last year, the government employed Gricd, a logistics start-up, to help with transportation of temperature sensitive items.
The company uses 'cold chain' monitoring boxes to move blood and plasma samples as well as vaccine vials.
Victoria Fenuga, a nurse at the centre, says the innovation has improved health services here.
"Before we refer patients to the lab but now when they come here, they make the job easier for us in taking the samples to the lab and it eases our service delivery", she said.
The cold boxes are the brainchild of Nigerian entrepreneur, Oghenetaga Iortim.
The trained engineer built his first prototype in 2018.
"I built a solution for post-harvest losses and then we started to see synergies or applications in use, cases across other sectors which included veterinary medicine for vaccine distribution for cattle, and also then saw healthcare and so that involved the company from building from post-harvest losses to actually solving fundamental human problems such as access to critical medications that are temperature controlled,†Iortim said.
The company launched its wi-fi enabled cooler boxes in 2019 to help monitor temperatures during transportation and storage.
Using its mobile application, customers can track products at the point of pickup to their last destination in real-time.
Last year the company recorded significant growth as orders increased to move test samples in the country’s megacity, Lagos as the COVID-19 pandemic spread.
The cold boxes run on solar-powered batteries in a country with erratic power supply. They are able to keep the units working for up to 24 hours.
"If you look at the African terrain you know that some of the major challenges, one, communication but secondly which is more importantly, is the lack of access to grid which is access to power, and so for that when you look back you'll see that they were challenges around accessing ice packs or ice gels that are required to pre-condition when transporting things like vaccine or samples from last mile to the city. With this now, which this is like a solar-powered battery-powered device that doesn't require all those...so without the infrastructure, this works," he said.
The boxes range from 15 to 100 litres and sell for 700 to 1,000 dollars depending on the size and weight.
Iortim charges between 2.5 and 400 dollars at the moment depending on the weight of packages and distance covered.
Dr Samuel Amoo, a research fellow at the Nigerian Institute of Medical research, bought a cold box he uses to transport blood samples in northern Nigeria.
"The problem is you cannot assure the integrity of what you are moving, yet they are bringing something that will tell you from the point of move, what it is and when you get to the destination you know what it is and if it is not what you expect you can actually say from the readings that it is not what...so it's creative and innovative and is something that should be accepted by all," he said.
Like in much of Africa, Nigeria struggles with poorly maintained roads making it difficult to transport samples efficiently.
Gricd plans to expand its services to other African countries.
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