Akon Lighting Africa initiative announces a sustainable power project in the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS)
The initiative that aims to deliver solar electricity to 600 mn residents was founded by US musician, Akon Thiam, along with Thione Niang and Samba Baithily, the co-founders of Solektra International. They aim to develop a major project to deploy microgrids throughout the region in partnership with ECOWAS Centre for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency (ECREEE).
Akon, during a recent visit to the Middle East commented, “The objective is to have 15,000 microgrids, which corresponds to 10 per cent of the localities targeted by the ECREEE microgrid plan.” He was of the opinion that the ideas and approaches emerging from the Middle East in the field of sustainable enrgy could help in solving Africa’s energy crisis.
Solektra International is a business to government firm founded by ALA that supplies a variety of solar technology equipment for homes, public areas and building in rural areas through government programmes and public tenders. The firm has been working on a business model set up with the state governments based on pre-financing. It is also hopeful that a similar approach can be used for this big micro-grid project as well.
