US Super Star, Akon Lighting up Africa through Solar Power
Akon Lighting Africa Project (http://www.akonlightingafrica.com)
has concluded its African road show last night in Benin. The three
co-founders, Akon, Thione Niang and Samba Bathily inspected the new street
lamps installed in the district of Pahou, near to the capital Cotonou with
Prime Minister, Mr. Lionel Zinsou. Benin is the last stop on this two-week road
show during which the co-founders unveiled their long-term objective to use
solar activities to drive education by introducing connected tablet devices.
According to him, “The solar power we are
providing can be used to connect all sorts of devices - telephones to
communicate, fridges to keep food so why not to power computers too. We
presented the outline of a new project we hope to launch within the next few
months to supply learning devices and to set up smart schools” explained
Akon. “Akon Lighting Africa is an initiative that puts top priority on
African development. Access to energy will drive rapid transformations in
Africa. Electrification first, education next” added Thione Niang.
This stopover in Benin was
also an opportunity to review progress on the solar project to date in this
country. Solektra International, the main partner of Akon Lighting Africa, is
just installing the last of the 1500 solar powered street lamps and 2200 solar
kits agreed under the tender it won a few months ago and targeting 124
localities. “We have already installed over 75% of the equipment and
the authorities are most satisfied by the work done by our teams in the field.”
explained Samba Bathily, CEO of Solektra. “Benin is a strategic
country. By winning this tender, we have been able to show that our
approach is both solid and involves high quality solutions. We would like
to thank the authorities for the confidence they have shown in us,” he added.
Cotonou was the last
stopover of a road show that started with the Global Entrepreneurship Summit on
July 24th and which toured Kenya, Rwanda, Congo-Brazzaville,
Nigeria, Niger and Benin. It was an opportunity to have productive discussions,
in particular with local agencies responsible for rural electrification, to
identify opportunities for deploying the solar solutions proposed by Solektra
international. Various authorities have shown interest in this initiative and
its proposed ‘prefinancing’ business model. By multiplying the number of
pilot schemes or participating in tenders, Akon Lighting Africa and Solektra
International is hoping to quickly achieve its objective to establish a
presence in 25 countries by the end of 2016.
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