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Akon Lighting Africa to launch solar powered tablets for education

7 Aug 2015

In Benin, the three co-founders of Akon Lighting Africa, music artist Akon, Thione Niang and Samba Bathily inspected the new solar powered street lamps installed in the district of Pahou, near to the capital Cotonou with Prime Minister, Mr. Lionel Zinsou. Solektra International, the main partner of Akon Lighting Africa, is just installing the last of the 1500 solar powered street lamps and 2200 solar kits under the tender it won a few months ago, targeting 124 localities.

Akon Lighting Africa co-founders with president of Benin

Benin is the last stop on this two-week road show during which the co-founders unveiled their long-term objective to use solar activities to drive education by introducing connected tablet devices.

Electrification followed by education

"The solar power we are providing can be used to connect all sorts of devices - telephones to communicate, fridges to keep food so why not to power computers too. We presented the outline of a new project we hope to launch within the next few months to supply learning devices and to set up smart schools," explained Akon.

"Akon Lighting Africa is an initiative that puts top priority on African development. Access to energy will drive rapid transformations in Africa. Electrification first, education next," added Niang.

This stopover in Benin was also an opportunity to review progress on the solar project to date in this country. "We have already installed over 75% of the equipment and the authorities are most satisfied by the work done by our teams in the field," explained Bathily, CEO of Solektra. "Benin is a strategic country. By winning this tender, we have been able to show that our approach is both solid and involves high quality solutions. We would like to thank the authorities for the confidence they have shown in us."

This was the last stopover of a road show that started with the Global Entrepreneurship Summit on 24 July 2015 and toured Kenya, Rwanda, Congo-Brazzaville, Nigeria, Niger and Benin. It was an opportunity to have productive discussions, in particular with local agencies responsible for rural electrification, to identify opportunities for deploying the solar solutions proposed by Solektra international. Various authorities have shown interest in this initiative and its proposed 'pre-financing' business model. By multiplying the number of pilot schemes or participating in tenders, Akon Lighting Africa and Solektra International is hoping to achieve its objective to establish a presence in 25 countries by the end of 2016.