Akon: From Konvicted to Social Entrepreneur
When I first heard Akon has started a business to bring solar power to Africa, I’ll admit, I rolled my eyes. The line between actually trying to make a difference on the continent and raising a celebrity profile can be thin. But by the looks of it, Akon Lighting Arica is taking quite a smack at the social enterprise game.
Photos from Solar Academy launch in Bamako, Mali (ALA Instagram)
A quick summary of the story of Akon Lighting Africa (ALA): Akon and Thione Niang are both from Senegal while their other business partner, Saamba Bathily, is from Mali. When they launched ALA in February 2014, their initial goal was to have their solar panels reach 1 million people in Africa. They have since surpassed this goal and are expanding into new countries this year.
The numbers and successes provided by Akon Lighting Africa are indeed quite impressive. For pilot projects in each country, Akon Lighting Africa pays for them, and that can be an average of $75,000 per village. The firm claims to have spent $400 million in a Wall Street Journal article from May 2015. In the same article, Bathily discussed the amount of credit, $1 billion to be exact, they have with one of their Chinese solar power company partners. Akon and Bathily give due to the initial direct funding by Akon Lighting Africa and the credit available to them as why the firm was able to grow so rapidly. While ALA also provides the raw materials, the firm has also made it possible to sustain these services in the long term by launching a “Solar Academy” to train people.
Numbers can be slightly deceiving in some cases. Especially since many of the solar lights installed are 100,000 street lights, the figure of “1 million people” reached to date is calculated by the number of residents of a town or village that has street lamps.
During many of the interviews that Akon has done in order to give press to ALA, he has some thoughtful insight into why he choose energy as his focus. In an interview with Le Point Afrique, when asked why he choose to focus on energy he said, (translated by me): “Without energy, we can’t do anything. We know that Africa cannot develop very fast because it lacks electricity, principally.”
On the particular issue of why he chose to make Akon Lighting Africa a business and not a charity, Akon strongly comes down on the side that is against aid. When he spoke to The Guardian, he said, “Aid has been the central point for Africa for years and there has been no progress. If you want to help people you have to empower them, employ them and educate them so that they can provide for their own.” This is not particularly a new or unique stance on charity in Africa. The debate has been raging for years, and is especially supported by the economist Dambisa Moyo, author of the book, “Dead Aid”.
Bathily, Akon, and Niang speaking at an event (Akon Lighting Africa Website)
But while Akon’s intentions are mostly good and generous, he still sees this as a business venture with a bottom line. As he said to Al Jazeera English in an interview, “At the stage that I’m at now, I only want to get into business that is going to help people, to change lives. So why not make money and change lives at the same time.” But of course, if you view charity and aid as failure for development in Africa, this is not a surprising opinion to have.
If Akon Lighting Africa’s mission sounds familiar, then you may be aware that the White House has a similar initiative called Power Africa. Launched in June 30, 2013, the goals of Power Africa are quite similar to those of Akon Lighting Africa. According to Devex, they are even in talks with Power Africa to see if they can work together. And it seems like things are doing well between the two organizations since Akon, Bathily, and Niang have been invited to the Powering Africa Summit hosted by the White House.
With the information is available, the success of ALA is impressive. But hopefully it will be sustainable over a long period of time. Because none of these achievement don’t matter unless they last.
