Azuri to Speak at U.S.-Africa Summit Side-event

On the sidelines of President Obama’s first ever U.S.-Africa Summit, Azuri CEO Simon Bransfield-Garth will engage as a partner of Akon Lighting Africa in the first annual Africa: New Partnership Models for Growth Conference. Akon Lighting Africa and Africa2.0, two civil society organizations representative of the emerging innovative and young African leaders, are holding the special event at the close of the summit.

In keeping with the US-African Leaders Summit theme of “Investing in the Next Generation by Stimulating Growth, Unlocking Opportunities, and Creating an Enabling Environment for that Next Generation,” Akon Lighting Africa and Africa2.0 are organizing an intergenerational exchange on Aug. 7 to give the next generation of African leaders from all sectors of activity an opportunity to directly engage with numerous African heads of state, business leaders, celebrities, intellectuals, artists, philanthropist, athletes and opinion leaders currently leading Africa.

In February, Azuri announced it was part of an alliance of partners joining Akon in the “Akon Lighting Africa” Project to bring electricity to a million households in Africa by the end of 2014. The partners visited nine West African countries to engage with leaders and other key stakeholders to drive the initiative to bring light and power to West Africa.

The event aims to provide a debrief with African presidents on their experience of the challenges of building a different Africa and as well as the learning and take-away pieces they gathered from the US-African Leaders summit with President Obama.