Akon to establish solar programme in Sierra Leone

To this end, the 'Pot of Gold' singer has met with President Julius Maada Bio. The meeting took place in the US during the UN General Assembly.

According to reports, the investment involves 2 500 traffic lights and 5 000 street lights.

The president, said Akon, "motivated me a lot more, you know; he is a very smart guy and he definitely understands Sierra Leone and he understands the future where Africa needs to be".

"Meeting with a lot of the younger Africans who have been elected now is really motivating because my biggest challenge was getting presidents to understand the vision, and we speak the same language," he said.

Over the years, Akon has moved further into the solar space while receding from the music industry as a singer and performer. He has also signed artists to his Konvict Muzik Africa label. 

"Clearly our main focus was the rural areas outside the city," Akon told Forbes about the early days of the project. "The challenging part was really getting the leaders there to kind of understand what we were trying to do because solar, at that time, was fairly new and very expensive.”

Backed by $1bn in funding, the Akon Lighting Africa project was launched in 2014. Since then, its Senegalese-American owner has gone from country to country in an attempt to supply power to different areas on the continent. Some of the countries listed on the project's official website include Rwanda, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Akon has already visited Senegal about the project and last year he spoke with President Adama Barrow of the Gambia.

Speaking about his meeting with Bio, Akon said he and the president got along. “We pretty much have the same thought process so I think he’s going to do very well for Sierra Leone,” Akon said.