{"id":117585,"date":"2025-07-05T06:04:09","date_gmt":"2025-07-05T06:04:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/index.php\/2025\/07\/05\/akons-futuristic-6bn-city-project-in-senegal-abandoned-bbc-told\/"},"modified":"2025-07-05T06:04:09","modified_gmt":"2025-07-05T06:04:09","slug":"akons-futuristic-6bn-city-project-in-senegal-abandoned-bbc-told","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/akons-futuristic-6bn-city-project-in-senegal-abandoned-bbc-told\/","title":{"rendered":"Akon\u2019s futuristic $6bn city project in Senegal abandoned, BBC told"},"content":{"rendered":"

Plans for a futuristic city in Senegal dreamt up by the singer Akon have been scrapped and instead he will work on something more realistic, officials say.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThe Akon City project no longer exists,\u201d Serigne Mamadou Mboup, the head of Senegal\u2019s tourism development body, Sapco, told the BBC.<\/p>\n

\u201cFortunately, an agreement has been reached between Sapco and the entrepreneur Alioune Badara Thiam [aka Akon]. What he\u2019s preparing with us is a realistic project, which Sapco will fully support.\u201d<\/p>\n

Known for his string of noughties chart hits, Akon \u2013 who was born in the US but partly raised in Senegal \u2013 announced two ambitious projects in 2018 that were supposed to represent the future of African society.<\/p>\n

The first was Akon City \u2013 reportedly costed at $6bn (\u00a35bn). It was to run on the second initiative \u2013 a brand new cryptocurrency called Akoin.<\/p>\n

Initial designs for Akon City, with its boldly curvaceous skyscrapers, were compared by commentators to the awe-inspiring fictional city of Wakanda in Marvel\u2019s Black Panther films and comic books.<\/p>\n

But after five years of setbacks, the 800-hectare site in Mbodi\u00e8ne \u2013 about 100km (60 miles) south of the capital, Dakar \u2013 remains mostly empty. The only structure is an incomplete reception building. There are no roads, no housing, no power grid.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were promised jobs and development,\u201d one local resident told the BBC. \u201cInstead, nothing has changed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile the star\u2019s Akoin cryptocurrency has struggled to repay its investors over the years, with Akon himself conceding: \u201cIt wasn\u2019t being managed properly \u2013 I take full responsibility for that.\u201d<\/p>\n

There had also been questions over whether it would even be legal for Akoin to operate as the primary payment method for would-be residents of Akon City. Senegal uses the CFA franc, which is regulated and issued by the Central Bank of West African States (BCEAO), and like many central banks has expressed opposition to cryptocurrency.<\/p>\n

The plans for Akon City had been sweeping.<\/p>\n

Phase one alone was to include a hospital, a shopping mall, a school, a police station, a waste centre, and a solar plant \u2013 all by the end of 2023.<\/p>\n

Sitting on Senegal\u2019s Atlantic Coast, Akon\u2019s high-tech, eco-friendly city was supposed to run entirely on renewable energy.<\/p>\n

But despite Akon\u2019s insistence in a 2022 BBC interview that the project was \u201c100,000% moving\u201d, no significant construction followed the initial launch ceremony.<\/p>\n

Now the Senegalese government has confirmed what many suspected \u2013 the project had stalled beyond recovery. Officials cited a lack of funding and halted construction efforts as key reasons for the decision.<\/p>\n

Although Akon City as it was originally imagined has been shelved, the government says it is now working with Akon on a more \u201crealistic\u201d development project for the same site.<\/p>\n

The land near Mbodi\u00e8ne remains of high strategic value, especially with the 2026 Youth Olympic Games approaching and increased tourism activity expected.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Plans for a futuristic city in Senegal dreamt up by the singer Akon have been scrapped and instead he will work on something more realistic, officials say. \u201cThe Akon City project no longer exists,\u201d Serigne Mamadou Mboup, the head of Senegal\u2019s tourism development body, Sapco, told the BBC. \u201cFortunately, an agreement has been reached between […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-117585","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117585","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=117585"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117585\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=117585"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=117585"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=117585"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}