South African startup Abiri is providing digital mapping services in areas Google Maps cannot reach in order to better link rural and peri-urban areas with cities. Launched in 2018 with the mission of creating digital integration to unlock township and rural economies, Abiri uses drones equipped with advanced cameras to map rural and peri-urban areas, and then converts these images into digital maps. The startup, which has so far mapped two small villages and considerable township areas, does this in order to enable easy access for things like emergency services, tourism operators and business travel to these settlements. “During our mapping process we engage communities and explain to them the importance of digital maps and how they can foster change and shorten response time of core services, which would normally find it hard to locate houses and streets in these regions,” founder Tswelelo Piet Mashita told Disrupt Africa. For now, as mentioned above, Abiri has only mapped a handful of settlements, with a total size of about 20 square kilometres, while it has gained over 3,500 active users. In addition to its mapping service, Abiri has developed a commuter feature where users can identify locations of taxi ranks and get directions to them.
SOURCE: DISRUPT AFRICA
More Stories
The Marshall Nature Reserve Gives a Different Glimpse of the Sudanese Capital
The Journey of Moving Tanzanians Around
Correcting Kinshasa’s Commodity Crisis
Can African Leaders Rate Themselves?
First Black African to Win Grand Tour Stage
Financing Dangote’s Fertiliser Dream Tougher than Expected
This is a Moment for the Women of Kenya
US Support in Somalia Couldn’t Have Come at a Better Time
A Symbol of Sudan’s Resistance
Families of Trapped Miners in Limbo
Google Translate Announces an Addition of 10 Languages Spoken in Africa
All Four Tourists Reported Missing in the Fish River Canyon have been Accounted For