Côte d’Ivoire Nears Universal Access to Electricity

Shortly after 10-year-old Aziz Kima finishes his math homework, he closes the book and turns to his mother with a smile. Although it’s evening, the room is brightly lit—in contrast to the days before the family’s electrical meter was installed. “Thanks to the electricity, he can review his lessons and do his exercises in the evening,” says his mother, Gisèle Kima, a seamstress. “It is more practical and less dangerous than studying by candlelight.” Her work has benefitted from the family’s hookup to the national grid, too: she can fulfill more orders and is less tired, she says, than when she had to pedal to power a manual sewing machine.