#AkonLightingAfrica

Many of you have probably heard of Akon, the singer/rapper. How many of you, however, have heard about his latest endeavours in Africa? In February 2014, Akon co-founded a project with Thione Niang called Akon Lighting Africa. With the help of Samba Bathily and his company —  Solektra INT — they’ve been able to provide working and renewable electricity to 18 different countries in Africa, and they plan on making it 25 countries in 2016.

According to their website, Akon Lighting Africa is investing an average of $75,000 per village, and is responsible for creating jobs for young people that reside in those villages. Around 100,000 street lamps, 1,000 solar micro-generators, and 200,000 household items are now available to people in rural areas of countries like Senegal, and Angola. The consequential light from the hard working citizens of those countries allow the residing children to read and study later than what the sun’s natural course dictates, and allows business owners to increase their revenue by making it easier to expand and stay open later. Another extremely important result of the lighting is that they make the roads safer and they can be easily maintained.

Now, to refer to the question that was asked at the beginning of this entry: “How many of you have heard of Akon Lighting Africa?”. This is an important issue that deserves more coverage than it has received, yet on your social media page you are more likely to see pictures of cats. Not that there’s anything wrong with cats. 

All of the information about Akon Lighting Africa can be found on their site here.