Keypoints:
- Senegal confirms Akon City project is cancelled
- New development to replace shelved $6bn plan
- Site in Mbodiène remains under government focus
SENEGAL has officially pulled the plug on the ambitious $6bn Akon City project, once touted as a futuristic African utopia. Instead, the government says it is backing a more achievable development with the US-Senegalese singer.
‘The Akon City project no longer exists,’ said Serigne Mamadou Mboup, head of Senegal’s tourism agency SAPCO, in comments to 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.’
Futuristic dream fails to launch
Akon, known for chart-topping hits in the early 2000s, first announced Akon City in 2018 — a city powered entirely by renewable energy and a bespoke digital currency called Akoin. The city was meant to embody the future of African innovation, drawing design inspiration from Marvel’s Wakanda.
The project, priced at $6bn, was set to be built on 800 hectares of land in Mbodiène, about 100km south of Dakar. Phase one was to include hospitals, schools, shopping centres, and police stations — all to be delivered by the end of 2023.
But nearly six years later, the site remains virtually untouched, with only a half-built reception structure in place. ‘We were promised jobs and development,’ one local resident told the BBC. ‘Instead, nothing has changed.’
Akoin and legal hurdles
A core feature of the project — the Akoin cryptocurrency — also ran into trouble. Despite being pitched as a transformative currency for the continent, Akoin struggled financially. Akon acknowledged the failure, saying: ‘It wasn’t being managed properly — I take full responsibility for that.’
There were also legal roadblocks. Senegal’s official currency, the CFA franc, is managed by the Central Bank of West African States (BCEAO), which, like many central banks, has raised red flags about cryptocurrency operating as legal tender.
Despite Akon’s 2022 reassurances that the project was ‘100,000% moving’, no meaningful progress followed.
New plans for Mbodiène in motion
The Senegalese government now says it will partner with Akon on a new, more grounded development at the same location. While details remain under wraps, officials say the revised plan will align with national priorities and realistic investment flows.
The Mbodiène site is still considered strategically important, particularly with the 2026 Youth Olympic Games on the horizon and a push to boost tourism along Senegal’s Atlantic coast.
SAPCO maintains that Akon remains part of the country’s development plans — just not with the utopian city he once envisioned.
