Akon is Planning a Futuristic City in Senegal

Senegalese-born Akon, the American singer, has plans of building a smart city in Senegal. The estimated cost of the said project is around $6 billion and it will be built on a futuristic metropolis, spreading out over 2,000 acres. Known as the ‘Real-Life’ Wakanda, the smart city, will comprise of a hospital, a luxury resort, an artificial-intelligence data center, condos, offices, and a stadium. Apart from that, residents of the city will use the singer’s own cryptocurrency referred to as Akoin to pay for any service. A Kenyan entrepreneur, who has a history of fraud allegations, will be funding the singer’s project quite heavily.

Akon unveiled plans for the project and said that when it is finished, this project would help in empowering African youths. Even though they have only released a few details about the project so far, a Los Angeles construction firm and an architect from Dubai have already been contacted for working on the so-called Akon City project. There is no denying that Akon has become quite a well-known name in the American music industry over the years. The singer has won multiple awards by now, but he wants to pursue other things because he doesn’t want music to be his only legacy.

Speaking to Business Insider via call, Akon said that one of his greatest fears was being known only for singing and dancing. Even if the singer’s songs are no longer the same anthem as they were once, it doesn’t mean that Akon has been idle all this time. He has stayed active in a number of other projects and in fact, is now a tech entrepreneur in Africa. Before purchasing a diamond mine in South Africa, the singer began with a solar power company. As a matter of fact, he went as far as introducing his own cryptocurrency, referred to as Akoin. 

It will be the only transaction enabler when the Akon City project goes live. The futuristic city spreading across 2,000 acres would be developed for acting as a business hub and will be filled with gleaming skyscrapers and palm trees. The plan will enable residents to pay for business licenses, taxes, along with basic utilities that use the Akoin cryptocurrency. The singer went on to say that he wasn’t just going to stop with this smart city project, as he had every intention of building similar smart cities in other areas of Africa as well.

The cost of this smart city project clearly indicates that Akon is not the only one who is providing the financial backup needed for funding the entire project. The BBC has made an estimate in 2018, which showed that Akon’s total net worth had been somewhere around $80 million. Therefore, it is safe to assume that the bulk of the financial backing needed for the Akon City project will be provided by the aforementioned Kenyan entrepreneur, while Akon will use this opportunity to make his cryptocurrency the only medium of exchange in the smart city.