Akon’s Multi-Billion Dollar Crypto City in Africa Gets a Reality Check

3 months ago 33

Rich radical person go obsessed with gathering caller cities lately—an affliction that extends adjacent to hip-hop and R&B vocalist Akon. Back successful 2020, Akon announced that helium would physique a futuristic caller metropolis successful his “hometown” of Senegal. “Akon City” would beryllium powered by greenish vigor and star power, diagnostic condominiums, a seaside resort, and a university, and would usage Akoin, his cryptocurrency, arsenic its superior root of exchange. Akon promised that, soon, the African state would have “a futuristic city” connected its hands, a “real-life Wakanda” that could enactment arsenic a paragon for “how African nine should go successful the future.”

Well, accelerated guardant to 2024, and it would look that astir nary enactment has been done to marque this imagination a reality. The authorities of Senegal, which provided Akon ample tracts of onshore connected which to physique his futuristic caller metropolis, is present moving retired of patience. Bloomberg reports that Sapco-Senegal, the government-owned entity liable for the nation’s tourism and development, has “given Akon ceremonial notice” to statesman enactment connected the project. If helium doesn’t marque immoderate advancement soon, the authorities volition instrumentality backmost a bulk of the onshore that it antecedently granted him. The authorities issued the announcement to the vocalist aft Sapco missed a fig of scheduled payments from him.

Gizmodo reached retired to Akon for remark and volition update this communicative if helium responds.

Akon antecedently promoted the task extensively but has been little vocal lately. Akoncity.com, which utilized to diagnostic details astir the singer’s plans for his development, present conscionable redirects to Akon’s idiosyncratic website.

#akoncity pic.twitter.com/IYbIjsd7HY

— AKON (@Akon) August 26, 2020

Akon isn’t the lone affluent feline who is atrocious astatine gathering cities. In the Bay Area, a slew of tech billionaires person been trying to manifest their ain municipality project connected thousands of acres of cow-poke farmland but recently suffered a demoralizing defeat. Then there’s Neom, the Saudi Arabian government’s task to physique an 105-mile-long city on the seashore of the Red Sea. This, too, is flailing. Despite a changeless flurry of promises to the property and investors, the Saudi authorities precocious had to standard backmost its ambitions. Other billionaire-backed municipality projects are scattered crossed the U.S., and adjacent Kanye West has planned his ain “Yecosystem.” Despite billions of dollars successful concern and tons of talk, nary of these projects person travel to fruition, proving that the 1 percent’s municipality readying expertise whitethorn beryllium greatly exaggerated.