Akon is giving back in a major way! The Senegalese music mogul has announced the launch of a new “Solar Academy” as part of his Akon Lighting Africa initiative, which promises to bring electricity to millions of African households.
The Solar Academy, which launches this summer in Bamako, Mali, will be a training center targets future African entrepreneurs, engineers and technicians. It aims to reinforce expertise in every aspect of installing and maintaining solar-powered electric systems and micro-grids in particular, which are really taking off in rural Africa. With 320 days sunshine a year, Africa is perfectly suited to the development of solar power, particularly since 622 million Africans still do not have access to electricity.
“We have the sun and innovative technologies to bring electricity to homes and communities. We now need to consolidate African expertise and that is our objective” explained Samba Bathily, Akon Lighting Africa co-founder. “We are doing more than just investing in clean energy. We are investing in human capital. We can achieve great milestones and accelerate the African transformation process on condition that we start training a new generation of highly qualified African engineers, technicians and entrepreneurs now” he added.
Read more about Akon Lighting Africa and the Solar Academy HERE.
