Akon's futuristic $6bn city project in Senegal abandoned, BBC told
Plans for a futuristic city in Senegal dreamt up by the singer Akon have been scrapped and instead he will work on something more realistic, officials say.
"The Akon City project no longer exists," Serigne Mamadou Mboup, the 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 [aka Akon]. What he's preparing with us is a realistic project, which Sapco will fully support."
Known for his string of noughties chart hits, Akon - who was born in the US but partly raised in Senegal - announced two ambitious projects in 2018 that were supposed to represent the future of African society.
The first was Akon City - reportedly costed at $6bn (£5bn). It was to run on the second initiative - a brand new cryptocurrency called Akoin.
Initial designs for Akon City, with its boldly curvaceous skyscrapers, were compared by commentators to the awe-inspiring fictional city of Wakanda in Marvel's Black Panther films and comic books.
But after five years of setbacks, the 800-hectare site in Mbodiène - about 100km (60 miles) south of the capital, Dakar - remains mostly empty. The only structure is an incomplete reception building. There are no roads, no housing, no power grid.
"We were promised jobs and development," one local resident told the BBC. "Instead, nothing has changed."
Meanwhile the star's Akoin cryptocurrency has struggled to repay its investors over the years, with Akon himself conceding: "It wasn't being managed properly - I take full responsibility for that."
There had also been questions over whether it would even be legal for Akoin to operate as the primary payment method for would-be residents of Akon City. Senegal uses the CFA franc, which is regulated and issued by the Central Bank of West African States (BCEAO), and like many central banks has expressed opposition to cryptocurrency.
The plans for Akon City had been sweeping.
10 Design Architecture
Phase one alone was to include a hospital, a shopping mall, a school, a police station, a waste centre, and a solar plant - all by the end of 2023.
Sitting on Senegal's Atlantic Coast, Akon's high-tech, eco-friendly city was supposed to run entirely on renewable energy.
But despite Akon's insistence in a 2022 BBC interview that the project was "100,000% moving", no significant construction followed the initial launch ceremony.
Now the Senegalese government has confirmed what many suspected - the project had stalled beyond recovery. Officials cited a lack of funding and halted construction efforts as key reasons for the decision.
Although Akon City as it was originally imagined has been shelved, the government says it is now working with Akon on a more "realistic" development project for the same site.
The land near Mbodiène remains of high strategic value, especially with the 2026 Youth Olympic Games approaching and increased tourism activity expected.
You may also be interested in:
Akon's Wakanda, grazing goats and a crumbling crypto dream
Born in France but searching for a future in Africa
US basketball training for Senegal cancelled after visas rejected
Senegal starts producing oil as president promises benefits
Go to BBCAfrica.com for more news from the African continent.
Follow us on Twitter @BBCAfrica, on Facebook at BBC Africa or on Instagram at bbcafrica
Senegal
Africa
United States
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Guardian
4 days ago
- The Guardian
Zero review – Senegalese time-bomb thriller is a blast
Set in Senegal's capital Dakar, this action thriller is so strikingly shot, so propulsively edited and so confident in its tonal shifts that by the end viewers are likely to feel enervated and stunned, but in a good way. It has one of those literal ticking-time-bomb narratives; a corny device to be sure, but one that Congolese writer-director Jean Luc Herbulot, with assistance from main actor and co-writer Hus Miller, manipulates in fresh and interesting ways. Certainly it will inspire some viewers to take a plunge into Herbulot's back catalogue, which includes festival-anointed gangster-horror flick Saloum, another adept genre mash-up set in Senegal. The conceit here is that Miller's white, American-accented unnamed protagonist, called simply #1 in freeze-framed titles, wakes up on a Dakar bus with a sophisticated bomb strapped to his chest that is set to go off in 10 hours' time. The bomb is connected to a countdown-displaying mobile phone, and a young woman sitting nearby explains to him that he needs to put a Bluetooth earpiece in his ear and answer when he hears the phone ring. When it does, a croaky American-accented voice (Willem Dafoe, no less!) explains that #1 has a number of chores to perform that day before the bomb goes off. Soon he's hooked up with another bomb-bedecked American called #2 (Cam McHarg) and the two of them are sent on missions around the city. These tasks include finding assorted folks and giving them objects that in at least one case result in the recipient being blown up by another mini-bomb. The explosions are understandably interpreted as terrorist acts, breathlessly reported on the local news that acts as a sort of chorus throughout (another corny device), so #1 and #2 have to evade capture by both legitimate authorities and angry crowds. There are lighter moments along the way, like a bit where the two bomb-bearing protagonists are compelled to sniff metres of cocaine to appease a drug lord; they get so high that the film erupts into montage, backed by some spicy African hip-hop, resulting in an interlude that doesn't further the plot much and seems to exist primarily to appeal to a young male demographic. But the tone shifts towards something more serious and considered later on when we meet the duo's final assignation, Daniel (Gary Dourdan), who pulls the strands together with a polemical monologue set against another montage, this time showing filmed portraits of Dakar residents looking straight at the camera with blank expressions that might be accusatory or at least questioning, representing perhaps all the regular folk who suffer when nations and parties jostle in the streets over politics and control. Elsewhere, Herbulot and the camera department deploy drones to create all kinds of skewwhiff long-distance views of the action, while creative use of camera lenses create a sense of disorientation. It's all in service of depicting a modern African city full of relentless colour, texture and movement, an unceasing river of human traffic that weaves through dense residential areas, huge piles of debris, and areas of commerce – before reaching the Atlantic Ocean on the city's edge. This last setting is where the dark climax takes place, a finale that doesn't entirely pull off the tragic ending it's aiming for, but one that stays true to the film's intense energy. Zero is in UK cinemas from 25 July and on digital platforms from 11 August.
The Guardian
5 days ago
- The Guardian
Zero review – Senegalese time-bomb thriller is a blast
Set in Senegal's capital Dakar, this action thriller is so strikingly shot, so propulsively edited and so confident in its tonal shifts that by the end viewers are likely to feel enervated and stunned, but in a good way. It has one of those literal ticking-time-bomb narratives; a corny device to be sure, but one that Congolese writer-director Jean Luc Herbulot, with assistance from main actor and co-writer Hus Miller, manipulates in fresh and interesting ways. Certainly it will inspire some viewers to take a plunge into Herbulot's back catalogue, which includes festival-anointed gangster-horror flick Saloum, another adept genre mash-up set in Senegal. The conceit here is that Miller's white, American-accented unnamed protagonist, called simply #1 in freeze-framed titles, wakes up on a Dakar bus with a sophisticated bomb strapped to his chest that is set to go off in 10 hours' time. The bomb is connected to a countdown-displaying mobile phone, and a young woman sitting nearby explains to him that he needs to put a Bluetooth earpiece in his ear and answer when he hears the phone ring. When it does, a croaky American-accented voice (Willem Dafoe, no less!) explains that #1 has a number of chores to perform that day before the bomb goes off. Soon he's hooked up with another bomb-bedecked American called #2 (Cam McHarg) and the two of them are sent on missions around the city. These tasks include finding assorted folks and giving them objects that in at least one case result in the recipient being blown up by another mini-bomb. The explosions are understandably interpreted as terrorist acts, breathlessly reported on the local news that acts as a sort of chorus throughout (another corny device), so #1 and #2 have to evade capture by both legitimate authorities and angry crowds. There are lighter moments along the way, like a bit where the two bomb-bearing protagonists are compelled to sniff metres of cocaine to appease a drug lord; they get so high that the film erupts into montage, backed by some spicy African hip-hop, resulting in an interlude that doesn't further the plot much and seems to exist primarily to appeal to a young male demographic. But the tone shifts towards something more serious and considered later on when we meet the duo's final assignation, Daniel (Gary Dourdan), who pulls the strands together with a polemical monologue set against another montage, this time showing filmed portraits of Dakar residents looking straight at the camera with blank expressions that might be accusatory or at least questioning, representing perhaps all the regular folk who suffer when nations and parties jostle in the streets over politics and control. Elsewhere, Herbulot and the camera department deploy drones to create all kinds of skewwhiff long-distance views of the action, while creative use of camera lenses create a sense of disorientation. It's all in service of depicting a modern African city full of relentless colour, texture and movement, an unceasing river of human traffic that weaves through dense residential areas, huge piles of debris, and areas of commerce – before reaching the Atlantic Ocean on the city's edge. This last setting is where the dark climax takes place, a finale that doesn't entirely pull off the tragic ending it's aiming for, but one that stays true to the film's intense energy. Zero is in UK cinemas from 25 July and on digital platforms from 11 August.
Daily Mirror
08-07-2025
- Daily Mirror
Epic £4bn seaside city with bendy skyscraper designed by Akon suffers huge blow
Celebrity singer-songerwriter Akon has been left red-faced after his ambitious plans to build a futuristic seaside city to the tune of £4.4bn has descended into chaos Ambitious plans to build an uber-futuristic city by the coast to the tune of $6 billion (£4.4bn) has hit a major setback. Bizarrely spearheaded by singer-songwriter Alioune Badara Thiam (commonly known as Akon), the mega project aimed to transform an 800-hectare site in Mbodiène - a seaside city in Senegal, Africa - into a modern metropolis run entirely on renewable energy. Mock prints of the development - which has been compared to the fictional city of Wakanda from the Marvel universe - show an unusually bendy skyscraper dominating the centre, alongside a slew of equally Black Mirror-esque buildings and green spaces. Back in 2022, the Smack That star said his eponymously named 'Akon City', was '100,000 per cent moving' despite no significant construction following the initial launch ceremony. Phase one of the bold development was supposed to see a hospital, shopping mall, police station, school, waste station and solar plant all completed by the end of 2023. However, after five years of constant setbacks, it's clear Akon City remains a mere dream - as the site in Mbodiène remains 'mostly empty'. It is said the only structure in place is an 'incomplete reception building'; roads, housing, and even a power grid have yet to be established in the area - provoking outrage from those living nearby. "We were promised jobs and development," one local resident told the BBC. "Instead, nothing has changed." Serigne Mamadou Mboup, head of Senegal's tourism development body, Sapco, confirmed to the publication that Akon City 'no longer exists'. Officials blamed a lack of funding and halted construction efforts for the project being shelved. However, it says it has now reached an agreement with the celeb - who spent his childhood between Senegal and the US - to produce a more 'realistic project' that can still benefit the area. Specific details on how much the project would cost, or when it is expected to be finished, have yet to be confirmed. When Akon City was announced, plans for residents to use a brand new cryptocurrency called Akoin as as their primary payment method were also unveiled. According to the BBC, there have been questions over whether this would even be legal, as Senegal currently uses the CFA franc, which is both regulated and issued by the Central Bank of West African States. Akoin has also struggled to repay its investors over the years, with Akon reportedly admitting: "It wasn't being managed properly. I take full responsibility for that."
