How Africa News
The famous rapper and singer Akon (Aliaune Damala Badara Thiam.. yeah.. that’s his real name) in 2014 decided to give filling dance floors a break in favor of bringing solar energy to people living in rural Africa. The idea came when the researches showed that the continent averages 320 days of sunshine a year.
So why not use this advantage?
There are just so many people in Africa still living in darkness while the world fights over who has more followers on Instagram. It’s insane.
Akon has decided to seriously diversify and set up charity “Akon Lighting Africa” in 2014 which now has finally flourished.
A wide range of quality solar solutions, including street lamps, domestic and individual kits, have been installed in 14 African countries.
As a result, a number of households, villages, community houses, schools and health centres located in rural areas have been connected to electricity for the first time ever.
Local jobs, primarily for young people, have also been created in these communities, whether for installation of equipment’s or for maintenance.
So, now over 600 Million people can live in the light like the rest of the world thanks to Akon.
Solar energy is the future of The World. This renewable energy is around us every day. Each day we do not use this energy we waste a great chance for cleaner world.
HERE ARE SOME OF THE THINGS PEOPLE AFFECTED BY AKON’S CHARITY SAY:
“Electricity is more than light. This is a true change in our daily life” – A mother, Yelimané, village, Mali
“Thanks to solar electricity we can now forget about kerosene, that is harmful and so expensive” – Inhabitant, Thiambokh Village, Senegal
“Now I can recharge my phone at home, I do not have to walk for hours or to pay for that” – Inhabitant, Village, Niger
We can truly make a GREAT difference if we use our minds for helping others from time to time. It is WE who make the world better or worse.
PLease! Just do your research before publishing such information. Akon and his chinese backed companies aim to provide but have not yet provided electricity to a s\ingle household in his homecountry Senegal or any other village in Africa. Providing electricity to 650 million people or half of the population in Africa is nothing else than a hoax. Africa is not a country nor a fderation of countries with a common agenda.
Nangadef. I’m pleased to read your comment and you are 100% right. The Akon story is nothing but hype and lies.
600 million Africans? If 1% of them really got and use solar, it would be a celebrated milestone
I’m glad you’ve shared this story, but I hope you know that it’s far from accurate.
It’s been hyped to hell with the inevitable result that serious mistakes have been made and the fundamental facts have been twisted.
What’s actually happening is that in conjunction with a large Chinese conglomerate, he has lent only his name and face to the initiative, and all he is personally doing is setting up a college and small factory to train technicians how to install solar energy systems.
The factory/college is in Mali, and it is African government money and European and UK technical expertise that will to help achieve this, NOT Akon’s own money.
His own company is only teaching people to install the solar lighting, but it is foreign banks and big business sharks who will do the running and gain the lions share of the income.
The set up money of $1 billion came not from Akon or Africa sadly, but from China (neo colonialisn say many), and it’s the Chinese, not Africans who will oversee and own the project.
So far, only around 3,700 people have benefitted from the lighting.
The Chinese company owns the rights to the design, servicing and spare parts of the lighting, and it is the ordinary African people who are paying to have it installed – NOT Akon.
They say it is hoped that up too 600 million African homes will eventually benefit, but that’s just hype and sales talk and the the words should be ‘may benefit’, not ‘will benefit”.
This is NOT charity – it is big world business at it’s worst.
With so many outside (non African) business interests involved, this cynical scheme is open to question and it’s inevitable that many Africans are deeply sceptical.
I also doubt if it will succeed in the way that is claimed, and too many Africans are trusting this story without doing any research at all.
They are now saying : AKON = A CON.