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Artist News
Akon to launch Solar Academy in Mali
By Andy Malt | Published on Friday 5 June 2015
If you’re in the UK today, it’ll be hard to tear yourself away from the celebrations surrounding BBC Music Day in order to look further afield. But this is something worth paying attention to. Akon has announced the launch of a new Solar Academy in Bamako, Mali to encourage the development of skills and expertise in solar power, as part of his Akon Lighting Africa charity.
Launched in February 2014, Akon Lighting Africa aims to bring solar power to over 600 million Africans who currently have no access to electricity, particularly in rural areas.
Speaking at the United Nations’ recent Sustainable Energy For All Forum, ALA co-founder Samba Bathily said: “We have the sun and innovative technologies to bring electricity to homes and communities. We now need to consolidate African expertise and that is our objective. 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”.
The organisation’s third founder, Thione Niang added: “We expect the Africans who graduate from this centre to devise new, innovative, technical solutions. With this Academy, we can capitalise on Akon Lighting Africa and go further”.
The academy is expected to open its doors later this summer.
