AKON: Bringing Electricity to 600 Million People in Africa

And then Akon said “let there be light” and there was! The award-winning producer and R&B music is hoping to give the give of electricity to 600 million people in Africa.

The Konvict Music CEO’s initiative, titled Akon Lighting Africa, will launch a "solar academy" that will help African countries harness the power of the sun. Most of the continent gets 320 days of sunshine each year, and the academy plans to install solar panels in a number of countries.

In addition to supplying energy, Akon Lighting Africa aims to be a source of sustainable employment for Africa’s relatively young population.

The campaign’s co-founder, Samba Bathily says, "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.” (Huffington Post UK)

Say What:

    Akon's giving back in a very big way.

    Plenty of artists consider themselves humanitarians, but few end up acting on such a large scale.

    It's a particularly selfless act when you consider plenty of those benefitting don't even know who Akon is.