Senegal ditches Akon's 'unrealistic' city project

Touted as a high-tech utopia powered by renewable energy and bankrolled by its own cryptocurrency, Akon City was ambitious as it was daring.

Designed with curvy skyscrapers and sleek modern infrastructure, early renderings of Akon City drew comparisons to Marvel's fictional African metropolis Wakanda.

Bringing it to life would cost some $6 billion.

But nearly seven years on, much of the 800-acre piece of land allocated for the project remains an empty grassland, save for a single unfinished reception building.

Now Senegal is repossessing the land to build something 'realistic', BBC reported citing the country's tourism authorities.

Senegal's leaders had hoped that the project would help transform the country where Akon, born Alioune Badara Thiam, spent a part of his childhood.

The singer has struggled to get funding for the project while legal challenges have also taken their toll.

In 2021, Ugandan authorities allocated 645 acres of land to Akon to carry out a similar project.

Like in Senegal, the Ugandan project has ran into trouble too. About 10,000 residents occupy the land and have rejected orders to forfeit their rights, saying they were not consulted about the project.

The Senegal city, Akon said in 2018, would be complete with a hospital, mall, police station, and a school.