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Consumer electronic and business solutions firm, Eskill Trading Corporation says it plans to venture into the mobile medical imaging business that will benefit Zimbabwe’s rural communities.

Eskill Trading is a division of the country’s leading Apple authorised re-seller and warranty centre – Solution Centre – and is itself an authorised reseller in Zimbabwe for Canon’s high-end digital imaging solutions.

Eskill Trading CEO Mr Brett Hensberg said the company’s entrance strategy into the medical imaging business would be through optometry.

Optometry is a healthcare profession concerned with the eyes and related structures.

“Our five-year plan is to go into medical imaging . . . to have affordable medical labs that we can take into the

rural areas and do particular testing with radiographic equipment, we can do retina testing to see if your eye is going to have catarax in the next few years.

We have technologies that can do that. I see that niche in our market.

“We are looking at optometry as a first start because it’s easy enough to work with. Optometry equipment is basically a modification of the digital single-lens reflex (DSLR),” he said.

DSLR is basically a digital camera combining the optics and the mechanisms of a single-lens reflex camera with a digital imaging sensor.

“We could do chest X-rays for examining people for tuberculosis, and all sorts of things so it will be something that we progress into stage by stage, and that’s in the next two to three years. By 2020 we would like to see that business model really working.”

Mr Hensberg said there were still a number of modalities to carry out, including engaging the relevant Government departments.

“So there are a few things that we still need to do, look at the equipment itself, look at the cost, partner with Government, Ministry of Health and also with the ministries that have to do with rural development because there needs to be a sense of ownership from the community for that project.”

Meanwhile, the group is set to open Zimbabwe’s first AAR+ rated Apple Store in Arundel next month.

Solution Centre managing director Mr Paul Georgeou said although Apple resellers in the country were yet to

get approval for setting up Apple Premium Reseller stores, the new Arundel store will be modelled on premium stores comparable to those in South Africa.

“It will be the first in the country with an AAR+ rating . . . the next stage above that is APR, which is Apple Premium Reseller.

“Apple said they won’t appoint an APR in the country for the time being, so the highest status we can achieve is the AAR+, which will be the first in Zimbabwe,” said Mr Georgeou. – BH24.