Akon Launches Solar Academy That Will Supply Electricity to 600,000,000 People in Africa

 

When he’s not singing or producing music, Akon is busy providing sustainable living options to people in African countries. The Senegalese-American singer’s initiative, appropriately called Akon Lighting Africa, aims to supply electricity to 600 million people in Africa who lack it with the launch of the Solar Academy.

Located in Bamako, Mali, the Solar Academy will help African engineers and entrepreneurs develop skills that will enable them to produce solar power. Experts will be on hand to help the participants with training and equipment, according to a Reuters report.

According to Akon Lighting Africa, the goal of the academy is to teach people how to maintain solar-powered electricity systems and microgrids. Both systems have been growing quickly in rural parts of Africa. In a continent that has 320 days of sun a year, roping in its natural resources will be valuable to the solar-energy efforts.

“We have the sun and innovative technologies to bring electricity to homes and communities. We now need to consolidate African expertise,” said Samba Baithily, who founded Akon Lighting Africa with Akon and Thione Niang.

The organization also hopes to create jobs with its initiative.

“We expect the Africans who graduate from this center to devise new, innovative, technical solutions,” said Niang. “With this academy, we can capitalize on Akon Lighting Africa and go further.”

Jessica Alba graces cover of Forbes as her business is valued at $1b

Actress and business woman, Jessica Alba graced the cover of Forbes magazine in its issue titled America's Richest Self-Made Women as her business 'The Honest Company' was valued at $1 billion and her personal fortune reaches $200 million.

Jessica started The Honest Company in 2008 when she was engaged to her now Husband Cash Warren and expecting their first child. Her mom advised her to wash the baby clothes she received as gifts for her baby shower with a detergent which she didn't know she was allergic to. She broke out when she used the detergent and decided to create a brand of detergent that was eco-friendly and non Toxic.

The sky has been her limit since then.

Gloo.ng launches Gloo for business- a dedicated site for businesses

Nigeria’s 21st Century Supermarket,Gloo.ng, has just launched a dedicated web portal for businesses. Businesses can now buy products specially selected from the Gloo.ng Retail website at massive discounts. 

The Gloo For Business product selection is specifically relevant to having a welcoming, clean, professional and classy workplace - a minimum requirement for every serious business interested in maintaining an ambience required to retain customers whilst promoting employee productivity.

 The shopping experience brings a seamless way of purchasing these workplace supplies to the finger tips of your procurement function, in a manner that your financial control function can electronically manage and at the same time providing your audit function with a transparent digital trail of all costs incurred in this area--which until Gloo For Business was typically shrouded for most businesses. Visit Gloo For Business to learn more.

Virgin StartUp of the week: Twicely

Every day we’re bowled over by the innovation of the UK’s startups. One such startup is Twicely. Founders Helen Walker and Adam Walker recognised that selling your stuff online can be a bit of a hassle – so they decided to make it simple. You send your premium pre-loved clothes to them, they’re sold for a percentage of the original price, and you get money in return. Easy. Twicely are supported by our delivery partners BBV. Let’s find out more

We choose one Virgin StartUp company to be featured on Virginstartup.org each week. We ask our startups of the week to deliver the ultimate elevator pitch. What would they say if they had one minute in a lift with Sir Richard Branson? Please answer the questions below, keeping each answer to five sentences max. 

Nigerian business Hotels.ng raises $1.2m from international investors

Hotels.ng - a Nigerian startup business that books hotels for people online - is in the news because it has raised an investment of $1.2m from eBay founder - Pierre Omidyar - and EchoVC - a Venture Capital Company based in Nigeria that does early stage investments for Nigerian technology companies...

6 Entrepreneurs You Should Learn From Now

Everyone has a different reason for being an entrepreneur, and every entrepreneur is different. However, the underlying entrepreneurial DNA that holds us all together is consistent: We have a healthy appetite for risk, we can solve problems, we thrive in uncertainty, we overcome all types of adversity, we think outside the box, we inspire masses and we believe in our dreams. We see the world in a unique way, and will stop at nothing to shape the world.
I’m pro entrepreneur. I think everyone who has ever thought about being an entrepreneur should at least give it a shot. I love learning from other entrepreneurs, hearing their successes and failures.
Related: 13 Online Marketing Blogs You Should be Reading (Infographic)
Here’s a short list of some of my favorite entrepreneurs to learn from and where to read their insights:

The Best Business Advice You'll Ever Get

Being an entrepreneur doesn't mean you have to go it alone. Most successful business owners will tell you they could not have accomplished their goals without help--from a mentor, colleague, even mom and dad. For many, their ability to evaluate, internalize and act on the counsel they received was instrumental in getting their companies off the ground.
In an effort to tap some of this wisdom, we called on business gurus to tell us the very best piece of advice they've received. From hiring to philanthropy and more, their responses were as varied as the companies they run.

Dennis Crowley, CEO, Foursquare

Photo © Ewan Burns

"Do what you love, and the rest will come."

After co-founding two businesses, reportedly turning down a $125 million acquisition offer and being named to just about every "40 under 40" list imaginable, Dennis Crowley, CEO of Foursquare, still cites the advice his mother gave him repeatedly as a child: to follow his heart.
This was the mantra he adhered to when he decided to get his master's degree at NYU's Interactive Telecommunications Program instead of going for an MBA. It was also behind his launch of social networking companies Dodgeball (which he sold to Google in 2005) and Foursquare, and his decision this past May to launch Swarm, an app that will unbundle the check-ins and other social media functions from Foursquare. (Foursquare will focus on helping users discover restaurants and other venues.)
"When I look back at my career to this point, I've spent the last 10 to 15 years following the same narrative, building things that people want to use and want to tell their friends about," he says, adding that he decided to spin off Swarm because, "over time, we realized that if we were passionate about these use cases, we needed to unbundle Foursquare into two apps."
He often thinks back to his mom's advice. "All of these [concepts] started as me working in my apartment building on something I thought would be cool," he says. "All are projects that turned into products that turned into companies."