Akon Lighting Africa is the name of the new initiative being taken on by rapper Akon to eventually provide solar power to 600,000,000 African people and build a foundation for future prosperity.
According to an article from The Root:
“Located in Bamako, Mali, the Solar Academy will help African engineers and entrepreneurs develop skills that will enable them to produce solar power. Experts will be on hand to help the participants with training and equipment,”
The academy’s stated goal is to give something to the African people that will not fade; lasting skills taught to the people and infrastructure that will yield more. The goal is to teach people how to maintain microgrids and solar-powered electricity systems. In rural Africa, this technology is becoming rapidly more prevalent.
“We have the sun and innovative technologies to bring electricity to homes and communities. We now need to consolidate African expertise,” said Samba Baithily, co-founder of the initiative.
“We expect the Africans who graduate from this center to devise new, innovative, technical solutions,” said Thione Niang, the third co-founder.“With this academy, we can capitalize on Akon Lighting Africa and go further.”
This is not charity. If this is genuine and not another money-backed publicity stunt, it is recognition and acting on the civic duty a person is born with; to look out for their people. This foundation could lay the ground work for not only an improvement in the standard of living for millions of Africans, it can also create real economic activity for years to come.
Hopefully this will inspire rich and successful people to use their wealth to create opportunities; to lay foundations for prosperity that actually grow and flourish for the good of the people
