Senegal cancels Akon’s $6 billion ‘Wakanda’ city dream, plans cheaper resort instead

Senegal has officially pulled the plug on Akon’s ambitious plan to build a $6 billion futuristic smart city, citing little progress and unresolved financial issues.

The project, which the American-Senegalese singer announced in 2020, was meant to turn the quiet village of Mbodiène into a high-tech “Wakanda-like” city. Akon was given 136 acres of prime coastal land for the mega project, but five years later, there’s hardly anything to show.

Fed up with the delays, the Senegalese government has now taken back most of the land and replaced the plan with a more realistic $1.2 billion resort and tourism development.

“That project no longer exists,” Serigne Mamadou Mboup, head of SAPCO (Senegal’s coastal development agency), told local media, confirming the government’s final decision.

Last year, authorities gave Akon a final warning to begin construction or lose the land after reports emerged that payments to SAPCO had stopped.

With no real construction in sight and financial backers pulling back, the government has now handed the land over to SAPCO for a new state-led project that is expected to attract private investors and create thousands of jobs.

New Plan, New Focus

SAPCO plans to develop a tourism hub with an investment of 665 billion CFA francs (about $1.2 billion). About 600 billion CFA francs will come from private investors, while the government will provide the remaining 65 billion.

Although Akon has lost the bulk of the land, he will be allowed to retain just 8 hectares for a smaller, less ambitious development.

The government says the new project will still deliver economic opportunities for the area, with the first phase expected to create around 15,000 jobs.

The dream of a tech-powered Akon City may have faded, but officials say the people of Mbodiène will still benefit — just not in the way Akon originally promised.