Akon's futuristic $6bn city project in Senegal abandoned, BBC told

Akon, a well-known singer and entrepreneur, once had a big dream to build a futuristic city in Senegal called Akon City. The project was announced in 2018 and was supposed to cost six billion dollars. Akon City was designed to be a high-tech, eco-friendly city with tall, curvy skyscrapers that reminded people of Wakanda from the Black Panther movies. The city was planned to run on a new cryptocurrency called Akoin, which Akon also created. Akon, who was born in the United States but spent part of his childhood in Senegal, wanted to help his home country by creating jobs and bringing new technology. He promised that Akon City would be a model for the future of Africa. The city was supposed to be built near Mbodiène, about 100 kilometers south of Dakar, the capital of Senegal. The first phase of the project included plans for a hospital, a shopping mall, a school, a police station, a waste center, and a solar power plant. Akon said all of these would be finished by the end of 2023.

However, after five years, almost nothing has been built on the 800-hectare site. The only thing that exists is an unfinished reception building. There are no roads, no houses, and no power supply. Local people who live near the site are disappointed because they were promised jobs and development, but nothing has changed for them. The Akoin cryptocurrency also faced many problems. Investors who put money into Akoin have not been paid back, and Akon admitted that the project was not managed well. There were also legal issues because Senegal uses the CFA franc, a currency controlled by the Central Bank of West African States. The bank did not support the use of cryptocurrency like Akoin as the main way to pay for things in the city.

Recently, the head of Senegal's tourism development agency, Serigne Mamadou Mboup, told the BBC that the Akon City project has been canceled. He said that Akon and the government have agreed to work on a new, more realistic project for the same site. The government said that the main reasons for canceling Akon City were a lack of money and the fact that construction had stopped. Even though the original dream of Akon City is over, the land near Mbodiène is still important, especially with the 2026 Youth Olympic Games coming up and more tourists expected to visit Senegal. The government hopes that the new project will help bring jobs and development to the area. This story shows that while big dreams can inspire people, it is important to make sure that plans are realistic and can actually be completed.