Akon’s Futuristic Senegal City Project Scrapped

Akon’s plans for a multibillion-dollar city development on Senegal’s Atlantic Coast has been scrapped. According to Bloomberg, the West African country has instead opted for a scaled-back project that will rely on private funding. Most of the land that had been set aside for a futuristic “Akon City” is now back under state control and that project “no longer exists,” Serigne Mamadou Mboup, head of Sapco-Senegal, the state-owned entity that develops coastal and tourism areas, told L’Agence de presse sénégalaise.

Most of that land was reclaimed after Akon reportedly missed payments to Sapco-Senegal last year. Sapco now plans to turn the area into a tourism hub with hotels, apartments, a marina and promenade connected to a nearby lagoon.

Back in 2020, Akon gave a flashy presentation in Senegal’s capital, Dakar, outlining his vision. Akon City would be a metropolis running on solar power and his Akoin cryptocurrency—complete with luxury apartments, a seaside resort, hospitals, a police station and a university.

Akon said the city would not only provide opportunities for Senegalese people, but also serve as an alternative home for African Americans facing racial discrimination in the United States.

“The system back home [in the US] treats them unfairly in so many different ways that you can never imagine,” he said in 2021. “And they only go through it because they feel that there is no other way. If you’re coming from America or Europe or elsewhere in the diaspora and you feel that you want to visit Africa, we want Senegal to be your first stop.”

Now Senegal is moving on.

Officials expect about 15,000 jobs will come from the new resort development’s first phase, according to Sapco.

“May this resort serve as a model for success in Senegal, a hub for tourism and a source of economic opportunity,” Nguéniène Mayor Alpha Samb said.

Akon will still play a role in some new developments: He’s retained almost 20 acres of land that will form part of a bigger Sapco-backed project that will cover over 1200 acres.

“What Akon’s preparing with us is a realistic project, which Sapco will fully support,” said Mboup.