Singer Akon’s plans for $6,000,000,000 futuristic ‘Wakanda’ city ditched
Sara Odeen-Isbister
Singer Akon’s plans for a $6 billion city in Senegal have been abandoned in favour of something more ‘realistic’.
Dubbed Akon City, the city would be a high-tech, eco-friendly ‘home back home’ for African-Americans and other black communities around the world and have its own crypto currency called Akoin.
Early designs showed futuristic buildings, including curvaceous skyscrapers, with several people comparing the city to the fictional Wakanda in Marvel’s Black Panther films and comics.
The Locked up singer, who had a string of hits in the noughties, announced the plans in 2018 and in 2020 said he’d secured funding and had officially bought the land.
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However, Serigne Mamadou Mboup, the head of Senegal’s tourism development body, Sapco, has now told the BBC: ‘The Akon City project no longer exists.’
He added: ‘Fortunately, an agreement has been reached between Sapco and the entrepreneur Alioune Badara Thiam [aka Akon]. What he’s preparing with us is a realistic project, which Sapco will fully support.’
JEDDAH, SAUDI ARABIA - FEBRUARY 15: Akon looks on in the NEOM McLaren Formula E Team garage during qualifying ahead of the Jeddah E-Prix, Round 4 of the 2025 FIA Formula E World Championship at Jeddah Corniche Circuit on February 15, 2025 in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. (Photo by Alastair Staley/LAT Images)
Singer Akon announced plans for the city in 2018 (Picture: 2025 Getty Images)
Akon City 10 Design Architecture Plans for $6,000,000,000 futuristic city designed by Akon abandoned
The design featured curvaceous skyscrapers (Picture: Hussein Bakri/BAD Consultant/Semer Group)
In 2020 Akon said construction had started, but all that has been built on the 800-hectare site is a reception building, which is only half finished.
It’s surrounded by barren land with no roads, housing or a power grid.
Plans for phase one – that were due to be completed by the end of 2023 – included a hospital, shopping mall, school, police station, a waste centre and a solar plant.
The city, 60 miles south of Senegal’s capital, Dakar was to be powered solely by renewable energy.
All that has been built is this half-finished reception building (Picture: Steven Ndukwu/ YouTube)
Akon City 10 Design Architecture Plans for $6,000,000,000 futuristic city designed by Akon abandoned
The city was to be powered by its own crypto currency, Akoin(Picture: 10 design architecture)
The 500 hectare site (Picture: Steven Ndukwu/YouTube)
Officials reportedly blamed funding, legal and construction issues for the the project’s demise.
The value of Akon’s cryptocurrency, Akoin, designed to power the economy of the city, also plummeted in value.
The singer has previously conceded that it ‘wasn’t being managed properly’, adding ‘I take full responsibility for that’.
As the country prepares for the arrival of next year’s Youth Olympic Games, there are now plans for a more modest development on the Akon City site, which sits along the West African country’s coastline.
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