‘Drone academy’ paves way for youth

ABIDJAN — “Drones have become my passion,” says Noursely Doumbia, who holds a degree in electronics and is currently learning to pilot drones as part of a pioneering program in Cote d’Ivoire’s economic capital Abidjan.

The training is being offered at a new “drone academy” which has been set up by the Ivorian Electricity Company, known as CIE, in order to revolutionize the inspection of its infrastructure and ultimately to reduce costs.

Although common in Europe, the use of drones is still in its infancy in West Africa, although the commercial market for unmanned aircraft is expanding.

The aim is for CIE — which is majority-owned by France’s Eranove Group, a key provider of water and electricity in West Africa — to train around 20 local pilots to inspect its high-voltage lines which crisscross the country, stretching more than 25,000 kilometers.

“We have a lot of problems with vegetation, we need to clear it all the time and it’s difficult because it’s all across the whole country,” says Benjamin Mathon, a pilot who is in charge of CIE’s drone and youth training program.

Dirt tracks that are impassable following heavy rain, widespread areas of lush tropical vegetation and a patchy road network often conspire to make access to electricity pylons difficult in a country which covers 322,000 sq km — nearly twothirds the area of France.

After overflying an area with a drone equipped with cameras and thermal and laser sensors, “we use artificial intelligence programs which analyze the images for any defects, a rusty bolt on a pylon, a damaged cable,” explains Mathon.

Not only do students learn how to fly drones, as well as how to assemble and repair them, but are they also trained to use different software packages for analyzing the images and resulting data, as well as geolocalisation and mapping.

“These new professions provide a way in for young people,” says Paul Ginies, director of the Centre for Electrical Professions, CIE’s training division.

“I’m sure that young Africans are going to grab hold of this and surprise us by developing applications which we have not thought of. It’s their generation.”

Alice Kouadio, another trainee pilot from the first group of students, has no doubt.

“The world is a drone, it’s the promise of tomorrow.”