Akon, together with entrepreneur Samba Bathily and political activist Thione Niang created a project solely dedicated to helping Africans have electricity in their homes. The ‘Akon Lighting Africa Initiative’s Solar Academy’ is set to provide a really cheap source of power enough to support 600 million Africans.
Source: Akon’s VEVO channel
Source: BET Awards
The project has already installed solar street lights and home service systems for household use since its launch last Summer. It has already reached 18 countries and Akon hopes to spread the good deed to 30 more by the end of 2020. Aside from providing cheap light source, the solar initiative also wants to teach African natives about maintenance and installation of solar-powered electricity systems and micro grids.
Source: Think Progress
Source: Akon Lighting Africa
“All the challenges really were in the beginning with getting a team properly set up, and then educating myself about energy and renewable and the territories it’s gonna be installed in Africa. But we pretty much identified a majority of the challenges that we would face in a lot of these countries, so we are pretty much on cruise at this point,” the multiplatinum recording artist said.
Source: Akon Lighting Africa