What others say
"A World Bank consultant and founder of the 'drone as a service' company Uhurulabs… a drone visionary."— CBS News, 2017
"I truly think that drones could have the potential to be a game changer in Africa… allowing us to leapfrog past traditional technologies, and it's being done out of necessity."— Frederick Mbuya, IEEE Spectrum, 2019
"The groundbreaking drone mapping of the entire island of Zanzibar was accomplished by africanDRONE founding partner Uhurulabs and the World Bank."— Pix4D case study
"Frederick Mbuya, a drone expert and project lead on the World Bank-funded Ramani Huria (Open Map) project."— International Center for Journalists
Coverage & documentation
International press
IEEE Spectrum · 2019
Tanzania's Homegrown Drone Industry Takes Off on Bamboo Wings
A feature on Uhurulabs and Frederick Mbuya, pushing the Tanzanian technical envelope with drones, 3D printing and locally built airframes. Read →
CBS News · 2017
Off the African coast, a new tool in the fight against climate change: drones
Uhurulabs' drone mapping of Zanzibar, told through its founder, "a drone visionary" and World Bank consultant. Read →
Voice of America
Tanzania Will Use Drones to Aid in Mapping, Prevent Clashes Over Land
On low-cost drone survey as a cheaper, faster alternative to traditional aerial methods for land mapping. Read →
PreventionWeb (UNDRR)
Drones help communities map flood risk in Dar es Salaam
How high-resolution drone imagery lets communities map and model flood risk in the city's most exposed wards. Read →
AgribusinessTV / RFI
Des drones pour une agriculture de précision
Precision-agriculture drone work covered by the pan-African agribusiness broadcaster and Radio France Internationale. Read →
Reuters
Drones help communities map flood risk in Dar es Salaam slums
The wire-service report that carried the flood-mapping story worldwide. Read →
The Guardian (Nigeria) · Pulitzer Center
Makoko: neglected and unmapped
Mapping Lagos's largest informal waterfront settlement by canoe and drone. Read →
The Citizen (Tanzania)
Flying robots for social change
A home-country profile of the work and the mission behind it. Read →
World Bank & institutional
World Bank Open Learning Campus
Mapping Zanzibar Using Low-Cost Drones
The World Bank's own account of the Zanzibar Mapping Initiative that Uhurulabs led. Read →
OpenDRI · GFDRR
Open Data for Resilience Initiative — Zanzibar
The programme context: a high-resolution map of Zanzibar and Pemba, over 2,300 km², for planning, land tenure and disaster resilience. Read →
Wikipedia
Ramani Huria
The community flood-mapping programme that mapped three-quarters of Dar es Salaam, to which we led the drone data collection. Read →
Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team
What we learnt from mapping African megacity Dar es Salaam
HOT's writeup of the Dar es Salaam mapping effort we contributed drone imagery to. Read →
NEPAD / African Union
Drones on the Horizon: Transforming Africa's Agriculture
A continental policy report on agricultural drones, with Uhurulabs among the contributors. Read (PDF) →
Industry & community
Pix4D
Drone mapping to improve lives in Zanzibar
A technical case study of the initiative, naming Uhurulabs as the africanDRONE founding partner behind it. Read →
africanDRONE
Founding partner of the pan-African drone federation
A federation of drone pilots, journalists and civic organisations across the continent, which we helped found. Visit →
Code for Africa
Drone Camp: Zanzibar
Where we spoke and trained on open data and mapping for social good. Read →
ICFOSS · Kerala, India
FOSS drone-mapping workshop, Kerala
We delivered a mapping curriculum in India alongside the founder of OpenDroneMap: flying, capture and processing with open-source tools. Read →
Open Design Afrika
Frederick Mbuya — speaker profile
A biography covering the open-source and open-data journey, from civic tech to UAVs. Read →
Women and Drones
Drone mapping in Africa
Coverage of the training and local-capacity work behind the mapping projects. Read →
Publications we contributed to
African Union / NEPAD · 2018
Drones on the Horizon: Transforming Africa's Agriculture
A continental policy report, co-authored, framed around the African Union's Agenda 2063. Read (PDF) →
CGIAR · 2017
Getting drones off the ground in Africa
On the practical realities of building a drone-services practice on the continent. Read →
Geoforum · Finland
Presentation, Smart Land Expo
Invited to Finland to present on drone mapping and open geospatial data in Africa. Read (PDF) →
Watch
BBC
Drones for urban flood prevention
Our Dar es Salaam flood-mapping work, on the BBC. Watch →
YouTube
Our project films
Agriculture, land tenure, the Lake Victoria and Lake Kivu Challenges, the bamboo drone, and more. Watch →
Find us
Talk to us
A system that needs building, an estate that needs running, or a survey that needs flying.
Uhurunet Technology (T) Limited · Uhurulabs
Acacia Estates Offices, 1st Floor, Plot 84 Kinondoni Road
PO Box 38568, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania