Over the past week, singer turned philanthropist Akon along with the co-founders of Akon Lighting Africa Thione Niang and Samba Bathily made their way in Benin not only to evaluate the positive implementations made in that society, but to unveil a new strategy for Africa.
While they were inspecting new street lamps installed in the Pahou district, Akon lighting Africa team announced a new initiative to enhance education through introducing solar powered connected tablet devices.
According to Akon, the solar power that they would be providing can be used to connect all sorts of devices, telephones, fridges as household items. This is why it only makes sense to connect them to computers too. “we presented the outline of a new project we hope to launch within the next few months to supply learning devices and set up smart schools” he said.
Partnered with Solektra International (main partners of Akon lighting Africa) the organization has so far installed 1500 solar powered street lamps and 2200 solar kits in Benin.
Their arrival in Benin was a closing to the road show that started with the Global Entrepreneurship Summit in Kenya last month, and spread into Rwanda, Congo-Brazzaville, Nigeria, Niger just before landing in Benin. From this short yet effective road trip, amazing solar solutions by Solektra international have been identified as opportunities in these areas, with multiple authorities showing interest in the initiative.
Hopefully, organizations such as this can influence our own governments to look into renewable energy as a source to power other fields of our economies and education.
