Akon Confirms His New City In Senegal, ‘Akon City’ Is A Reality

A while ago, I wrote about how Aliaune Damala Badara Akon Thiam popularly known as just Akon was quietly building his own “futuristic” city in Senegal named after himself. A few comments on social media, however, questioned just how practical the artist’s ‘dream’ was, well, the musician and entrepreneur confirmed the signing of the agreement for Akon City earlier this week in a Twitter post. “Just finalized the agreement for AKON CITY in Senegal. Looking forward to hosting you there in the future,” he wrote.

Just finalized the agreement for AKON CITY in Senegal. Looking forward to hosting you there in the future pic.twitter.com/dsoYpmjnpf

— AKON (@Akon) January 13, 2020

The musician announced on June last year that he was working on building a hundred percent crypto-based city. Talking on Nick Cannon’s radio show Power 106 Los Angeles, the songwriter announced that constructions had started.

Akon signed the agreement with the state-owned tourism company SAPCO to build the city, SAPCO Secretary General Aliune Ndiaye told AFP that the deal was a memorandum of understanding, so the size of the future investment is still unclear. He added, however, that Akon plans to build a complex in the seaside village of Mbodiene, some 120 kilometers south of the capital Dakar.

A spokesperson for Senegal’s tourism ministry said the singer wanted to build a sustainable tourism village that would ‘campaign for the environment’.

It is unclear if the city and the tourism complex are separate entities, or one and the same thing.