Zambia’s government aims to make the most of the presence of Starlink to digitise its healthcare system, it has said.

Felix Mutati, minister of Science and Technology, believes a digitised and connected healthcare system would boost service delivery and address bottlenecks in the beleaguered sector.

The Southern African country awarded a licence to Elon Musk’s low-Earth orbit satellite telco to operate locally just over a year ago.

Following the entry of Starlink, Zambia has converted 95 post offices into ‘Digital Transformation Centres’ by connecting them to Starlink internet access, allowing residents to access more than 300 government services online for free.

The country has 106 post offices, which it aims to connect to Starlink.

Mutati has embarked on a tour of the Muchinga province, where he encouraged the local hospital to connect to the Starlink internet installed at a nearby post office in Nakonde.

He said the ministries of Health and of Technology and Science were working together to digitise operations across the health sector.

“The government’s agenda is to ensure that healthcare is digitised to promote service delivery and reduce rigidity,” Mutati said.

The digitisation of the health sector is central to the eighth Zambia National Development Plan (2022-2026).

Zambia’s health sector has suffered major challenges in recent months. Last year, the country suffered an outbreak of cholera, which left hundreds of people dead.

The country has also adopted technology to thwart corruption in the disbursement of drugs.