Dakar, Senegal – Plans for a futuristic city in Senegal, championed by US-Senegalese singer Akon, have been officially scrapped. Instead, officials say the artist will now focus on a “more realistic” development project in the same location.
“The Akon City project no longer exists,” Serigne Mamadou Mboup, head of Senegal’s tourism development body, Sapco, told the BBC. “Fortunately, an agreement has been reached between Sapco and the entrepreneur Alioune Badara Thiam [Akon]. What he’s preparing with us is a realistic project, which Sapco will fully support.”
Akon, known for his chart-topping hits in the 2000s and partly raised in Senegal, first announced two ambitious initiatives in 2018, intended to represent the future of African society. The flagship project was Akon City, reportedly costed at $6 billion (£5 billion), which was to be powered by a new cryptocurrency called Akoin.
Initial designs for Akon City, featuring bold, curvaceous skyscrapers, were often compared by commentators to the fictional city of Wakanda from Marvel’s Black Panther. However, after five years of setbacks, the 800-hectare site in Mbodiène, about 100km (60 miles) south of the capital, Dakar, remains largely undeveloped. The only existing structure is an incomplete reception building, with no roads, housing, or power grid.
“We were promised jobs and development,” one local resident told the BBC. “Instead, nothing has changed.”
The Akoin cryptocurrency has also faced challenges in repaying investors. Akon himself conceded: “It wasn’t being managed properly – I take full responsibility for that.” Questions had also been raised about the legality of Akoin operating as the primary payment method within Akon City, given that Senegal uses the CFA franc, regulated by the Central Bank of West African States (BCEAO), which, like many central banks, has expressed opposition to cryptocurrencies.
The original plans for Akon City were sweeping, with “Phase one” alone slated to include a hospital, a shopping mall, a school, a police station, a waste centre, and a solar plant, all to be completed by the end of 2023. The high-tech, eco-friendly city, situated on Senegal’s Atlantic Coast, was intended to run entirely on renewable energy. Despite Akon’s insistence in a 2022 BBC interview that the project was “100,000% moving,” no significant construction followed the initial launch ceremony.
The Senegalese government has now confirmed what many suspected: the project had stalled beyond recovery, citing a lack of funding and halted construction efforts as key reasons. While Akon City, as originally envisioned, has been shelved, the government confirmed it is working with Akon on a more “realistic” development project for the same site. The land near Mbodiène is considered strategically valuable, particularly with the upcoming 2026 Youth Olympic Games and an expected increase in tourism activity.
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