Today over 1.3 billion Africans don’t have access to electricity. 1.3 billion.
While the global access to electricity stands at around 80 percent, in Africa alone it is 30%, and in sub-Saharan Africa that number falls to 5 percent. Africa contains 15 percent of the world’s population, yet only consumes 3 percent of global electricity production.
This leaves the majority of Africans without the power they need to do even basic activities like use electronic communications, light their homes and communities, and power the tools needed to innovate and improve quality of life.
It’s no wonder that global music superstar Akon has been prompted to launch the Akon Lighting Africa initiative, which aims to bring solar power to 600 million Africans who currently live without power.
So far fourteen countries have benefited from solar street lamps, micro-inverters, charging stations, and home solar kits. 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.
The lack of power “stopped us from doing the things we need to do,” says Akon. “There wasn’t enough electricity to pull from,” to get Africa on par with the rest of the world developmentally, and solar was “the biggest and quickest solution.”
Not only supplying these solar power technologies to communities, Akon Lighting Africa is also educating Africans through a University which focuses on solar energy delivery and maintenance.
Akon Lighting Africa also teaches Africans how solar power works and how to install arrays through a training program called the Solar Academy.
“In every village we go to, we want to keep that village sustainable,” and promote entrepreneurship, Akon said. “The involvement of the rest of the world will be key. It will have to be started by Africans, but the technology the world has to offer has to be shared.”
Find out more at http://akonlightingafrica.com/
