Senegal has officially scrapped Akon’s ambitious $6 billion plan to build a futuristic smart city, citing limited progress and unresolved financial challenges.
The project, announced by the American-Senegalese singer in 2020, aimed to transform the small village of Mbodiène into a high-tech “Wakanda-like” city.
Although Akon was granted 136 acres of prime coastal land for this massive development, five years on, very little has materialized.
Frustrated by the ongoing delays, the Senegalese government has reclaimed most of the land and replaced the original vision with a more practical $1.2 billion resort and tourism project.
“That project no longer exists,” Serigne Mamadou Mboup, head of SAPCO (Senegal’s coastal development agency), told local media, confirming the government’s final decision.
Last year, officials issued Akon a final ultimatum to commence construction or forfeit the land, following reports that payments to SAPCO had stopped.
With construction nowhere in sight and financial backers withdrawing, the government has handed the land back to SAPCO to spearhead a new state-led initiative aimed at attracting private investors and generating thousands of jobs.
SAPCO plans to develop a tourism hub with an investment of 665 billion CFA francs (approximately $1.2 billion). Around 600 billion CFA francs will come from private investors, while the government will contribute 65 billion.
Although Akon has lost most of the land, he will be permitted to keep just 8 hectares for a smaller-scale, less ambitious project.
Officials say the new development will still bring economic opportunities to the area, with the first phase expected to create roughly 15,000 jobs.
While the vision of a tech-powered Akon City may have faded, the people of Mbodiène are still set to benefit, just not in the way Akon originally envisioned.
