Akron has created the Akon Lighting Africa initiative in hopes of giving light to 600 million Africans that lack electricity. The singer announced the “Solar Academy” earlier this week.
The Senegalese-American singer will open the institute in Bamako and then allow African engineers and business people the ability to harness solar power.
“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 Akon Lighting Africa. Akon and Thione Niang are the other co-founders.
Seventy percent of Africans are under 35 and ALA also hopes to create jobs as well.
“We expect the Africans who graduate from this center to devise new, innovative, technical solutions,” said Niang. “With this Academy, we can capitalize on Akon Lighting Africa and go further.”