Senegal Nixes Akon’s $6B Futuristic Utopia, Reclaims Land After Six-Year Delay
Akon’s plan for a $6 billion futuristic city in Senegal has been abandoned after years of setbacks and only one structure reaching completion.
Akon saw his $6 billion vision for the futuristic urban center collapse once the state took back the land and declared the project finished.
The initiative, first introduced in 2018, promised a cutting-edge community run on renewable power and supported by Akoin, his own cryptocurrency.
After six years, only an incomplete welcome center remains on the 800-hectare plot near Mbodiene, with no other structures in place.
Senegalese authorities have cut funding for the failed scheme and are preparing a more practical replacement, according to BBC News.
“The Akon City project no longer exists,” said Serigne Mamadou Mboup, head of the country’s tourism development agency Sapco. “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.”
The land, once praised as a real-life Wakanda, was meant to host luxury residences, hospitals, retail outlets and a sports stadium.
Instead, it sits empty with no roads, housing or utilities. Residents who surrendered plots in good faith say they have yet to receive compensation or updates.
Akon acknowledged the effort was mishandled. “Full responsibility,” he said earlier, admitting Akoin was poorly managed and the city’s funding model could not weather regulatory and economic pressures.
That cryptocurrency, once central to the plan’s economy, has plunged sharply in value and run into serious legal trouble with Senegal’s central bank.
Officials warned Akon on multiple occasions to begin work or return the land. With no visible progress, authorities took formal control of the property.
