Akon builds solar Academy in Africa

Senegalese-American musician, Akon, whose
Akon Lighting Africa initiative is aimed at
bringing electricity to
some 600 million
Africans, on Tuesday declared the launch of a
new ‘Solar Academy’.

A group investing in solar power for the
future, the News Agency of Nigeria reports,
says the academy could help to implant a viable
platform to power homes that lacked
electricity.

The institution is scheduled to open this
summer in Bamako, Mali’s capital.
It would try to give African engineers and
entrepreneurs the skills needed to develop
solar power.

European experts will help to supply training
equipment and programmes.

“We have the sun and innovative technologies
to bring electricity to homes and communities.

“We now need to consolidate African
expertise,’’ said Samba Baithily, who founded
Akon Lighting Africa with Akon and Thione
Niang.

“The academy will aim to teach people how to
install and maintain solar-powered electricity
systems as well as micro-grids, which are
really taking off in rural Africa,’’Akon
Lighting Africa said.

The NAN reports that Akon is the performing
name of the Senegalese-American singer
Aliaune Thiam, whose 2004 debut album,
Trouble, spawned the hit singles “Locked Up’’
and “Lonely’’.

He is the son of jazz percussionist Mor Thiam,
Akon spent his childhood in the U.S.