DHL to Invest $575M in Healthcare Logistics Across Africa, Middle East
TLDR
- DHL Group plans to invest €500 million ($575 million) in healthcare infrastructure across Africa and the Middle East over the next five years
- The investment, which represents 25% of the company’s €2 billion global healthcare allocation to expand warehousing, packaging, and logistics capacity
- The focus is on high-value, time-sensitive shipments such as vaccines, stem cells, insulin therapies, and cryogenic materials
DHL Group plans to invest €500 million ($575 million) in healthcare infrastructure across Africa and the Middle East over the next five years. The investment, which represents 25% of the company’s €2 billion global healthcare allocation to expand warehousing, packaging, and logistics capacity in response to rising pharmaceutical demand in the region.
Key hubs include South Africa, Egypt, Kenya, Dubai, and Saudi Arabia. The focus is on high-value, time-sensitive shipments such as vaccines, stem cells, insulin therapies, and cryogenic materials, with a strong emphasis on traceability and cold-chain integrity.
Annette Naude, DHL’s Head of Healthcare for Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA), said Africa’s growing population and shifting health priorities—from communicable diseases to chronic conditions—are fueling demand for more sophisticated supply chains.
The investment also aligns with increased Chinese presence in African health infrastructure, including a DHL-China joint medical devices plant in Kenya, which now exports to Europe and the Middle East.
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Key Takeaways
Africa’s pharmaceutical sector is on a sharp growth trajectory, projected to reach $33.8 billion by 2030, according to Grand View Research. Rapid urbanisation, rising incomes, and a shift toward non-communicable disease treatment are changing healthcare consumption patterns across the continent. DHL’s investment signals a strategic move to capture this demand while addressing long-standing distribution bottlenecks. By building ultra-cold storage warehouses and enabling product serialization, DHL is aligning its logistics infrastructure with international regulatory and safety standards, critical for vaccines, biologics, and advanced therapies. This effort also complements broader trends in supply chain localization, as seen in the Kenya-based device manufacturing partnership with Chinese investors. As more African countries push for local production and efficient last-mile delivery, DHL’s infrastructure expansion could play a pivotal role in shaping regional health resilience. For governments and development partners, the rollout of DHL’s infrastructure offers a potential blueprint for public-private collaboration to improve medicine access, enhance pandemic preparedness, and strengthen intra-regional health trade.
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