Admitting that the quest to bring electricity to one million homes across Africa is a bit ambitious, Senegalese-American singer and businessman Akon said that reaching for the stars with his Akon Lighting Africa initiative is the right approach. Elaborating on the project and partnership between Akon Corp, the GIVE1 PROJECT and Solektra International, Akon spoke to AFKInsider about his initiative’s current stage, meeting African leaders and the infrastructural plan that will help make electricity incomparable to a sought after resource.

“I was actually surprised that they didn’t have solidified companies already coming in with ideas like that,” Akon said of the African leaders and nations. “We were actually one of the few lucky ones that actually caught them when they needed it”

“Africa’s very important. Ultimately, you can’t move too much without the government’s involvement. So, you want to create a system where the people can control it and the government can maintain it. That’s been the main goal in how we created our infrastructure.”