How $6bn Akon City Dream Became a Nightmare

For years, Akon City was billed as Africa’s answer to Wakanda – a dazzling, futuristic city of glass towers, solar power, and cryptocurrency. Now, officials in Senegal have finally admitted what many locals long suspected: the project was doomed from the start.

Unveiled in 2020 by US-Senegalese singer Akon, the $6 billion plan to build a high-tech city in Mbodiène, 100km south of Dakar, has stalled. Five years on, the 800-hectare site remains bare, with only an unfinished reception building and no roads, housing, or electricity.

“The Akon City project no longer exists,” confirmed Serigne Mamadou Mboup, head of Senegal’s tourism development agency, Sapco.

He added: “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.”

The city that was inspired by the film Black Panther would have included hospitals, shops, universities, and a police station – all powered by renewable energy. However, work stalled almost immediately.

Locals have been left disillusioned. “We were promised jobs and development,” one resident told the BBC. “Instead, nothing has changed.” Others recall repeated delays and shifting timelines. In August 2024, the government sent Akon a final notice over the lack of progress. Soon after, most of the land was seized back by the state.

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Akon himself has admitted mistakes. His cryptocurrency Akoin has struggled to pay back investors, with the singer conceding: “It wasn’t being managed properly – I take full responsibility for that.”

Questions had also arisen about whether Akoin could even be legally adopted in Senegal, which relies on the CFA franc issued by the Central Bank of West African States.

Now, the grand vision has been scaled down to a $1 billion “tourism hub” built on just eight hectares. Funded by private investors, the new development will include hotels, apartments, a marina, and a promenade. Sapco says the first phase alone could create about 15,000 jobs.

For some in Mbodiène, that prospect brings cautious optimism. Schoolteacher Jean Wally Sene reflected: “For a very long time, people, including Akon, have been coming here trying to sell us dreams and illusions. Finally, there’s a dream for Mbodiène that we dare to believe in.”

Mayor Alpha Samb struck a more hopeful note at the launch of the revised plan: “May this resort serve as a model for success in Senegal, a hub for tourism and a source of economic opportunity.”

Whether the reimagined venture delivers where Akon City failed remains to be seen. For now, the once-utopian dream of a Senegalese Wakanda has been shelved, replaced by something smaller, more grounded – and, perhaps, more achievable.

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