Those who were still hoping to one day live in Wakanda thanks to Akon City can kiss their dreams goodbye. This project for a connected, eco-friendly city in Senegal, inspired by the African kingdom from Marvel's Black Panther comics, has been shelved for good. Announced with great fanfare and receiving significant media coverage, the futuristic urban initiative led by American-Senegalese artist Akon suffered a series of delays, flaws, and timing errors that damaged its image and the trust placed in it by the Senegalese authorities. Here's how the “revolutionary” project fell apart, in 10 key dates.June 2018 — First public announcement of the Akon City project
In June 2018, while attending the Cannes International Festival of Creativity in France, American singer Akon, whose real name is Alioune Badara Thiam, announced the creation of a futuristic city to be powered by “Akoin,” a virtual currency scheduled to be launched in July 2018.
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He describes this city as follows: “a 100% encrypted city with Akoin at the center of transactional life […] merging Smart City planning concepts with a blank canvas to encrypt our daily human and commercial exchanges in order to invent a radically new way of life.”
For this city, initially named “Akon Crypto City,” the singer said he had obtained 2,000 acres (approximately 800 hectares) from former Senegalese President Macky Sall.
January 2020 — Formalization of the partnership with the Senegalese government
Following this announcement in 2018, the project generated a great deal of enthusiasm. The 3D models designed by Dubai-based Lebanese architect Hussein Bakri and videos presenting the future city, consisting of tall glass towers, luxury hotels, hospitals, and business centers, attracted the interest of the public and the mainstream media.
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On January 13, 2020, Akon signed a memorandum of understanding with the Société d’aménagement et de promotion des côtes et zones touristiques du Sénégal (Sapco), a publicly traded company with majority public ownership, in the presence of the then Senegalese Minister of Tourism, Alioune Sarr. The singer promised a high-tech, eco-friendly city with architecture inspired by Wakanda.
The location has been chosen. It will be 100 km south of Dakar near the coastal village of Mbodiène facing the Atlantic Ocean. Planned area: 55 hectares.
August 2020 — Laying of the foundation stone
The project is gaining momentum. A few months after the agreement with Sapco, the symbolic laying of the foundation stone took place on Sunday, August 31, in the presence of Alioune Sarr.
The project manager is the American company KE International, which is involved in the deployment of green infrastructure and smart city projects. It will also oversee the planning and construction and manage the city once it is built. With a total cost of $6 billion, most of which will be covered by “American private partners,” the first phase of construction is expected to be completed in 2023, with the entire project finalized in 2029.
September 2020 — Civil forum requests clarification
Faced with the authorities’ enthusiasm, the Civil Forum, the Senegalese branch of the NGO Transparency International, is exercising caution. On September 10, the association sent a letter to the Ministry of Tourism and the CEO of Sapco. The aim was to request clarification on several unclear points regarding the Akon project. According to its general coordinator, Ibrahima Seck, the aim was specifically to obtain details on the financial arrangements, the project’s shareholders, the legal framework applicable to the city, and the land transfer studies in relation to the local authorities and populations concerned.
January-March 2021 — Radio silence
Scheduled to start in the first quarter of 2021, construction work on Akon City has not begun. Local journalists note the total absence of activity on the site. Clouds are beginning to gather…
January-December 2022 — Criticism mounts, Akon reassures
On the ground, criticism continues unabated, particularly from the media, which now refers to Akon City as a “scam” in the absence of any concrete progress.
In March 2022, the website Dakaractu even raised the possibility that the project was a Ponzi scheme. But the singer dismissed all these accusations during an interview with the British broadcaster BBC in December. While he acknowledges that the project is dragging on, the Saint Louis, Missouri native attributes the situation to “administrative delays” and the Covid-19 pandemic. According to him, the project is “100,000% underway” and in the future, the project’s detractors will “look stupid.”
February 2023 — “Akon City is a scandal”
In February 2023, Congressman Bara Gaye sharply criticizes the project. “Akon City is a scandal,” the elected official declares before parliament, before asking, “What is the State of Senegal waiting for to terminate this contract?”
It must be said that nearly three years after the groundbreaking ceremony, the project has come to a standstill. According to media reports, construction has still not begun. Meanwhile, the completion date for the first phase of construction, previously set for the end of 2023, has been postponed to 2025, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, according to the singer.
June 2024 — Sapco sends a formal notice to Akon City
Four years later, the Akon City construction site is not really progressing. So far, only the structure of a curved building has been installed: the “Welcome Center.” Faced with this chronic delay, Sapco sent a formal notice to the artist on June 28. In short, if work does not actually start by the end of July, the land granted to him will be withdrawn. Later, Bloomberg quoted two people close to the case revealing that Akon received the notice after missing several payments to Sapco.
August 2024 — “Work is progressing”
Despite skepticism, Cheick Seck, project manager at Axiome Construction, a Dakar-based company, steps up to reassure everyone that work is “progressing.” According to him, geotechnical studies and environmental assessments are underway…
June 26, 2025 — “The Akon City project is no longer relevant.”
“The Akon City project is no longer relevant.” This succinct statement by Serigne Mamadou Mboup, CEO of the Senegalese Coastal and Tourist Zone Development and Promotion Company (Sapco) on June 26, 2025, deals the final blow to this ambitious dream of Senegalese-American artist Akon.
On the site, Bloomberg reports a basketball court, a youth center, and a small information center. According to other local media outlets, the rest of the space has been taken over by brush that serves as grazing land for animals…
Today: Exit the future, return to the present
Gone are the curved architecture and 3D computer-generated images. With the end of Akon City, Sapco has a new, more measured plan for the region. The company plans to spend 665 billion CFA francs ($1.2 billion) to turn the area into a tourist hub with apartments, hotels, a marina, and a road connecting the area to a nearby lagoon.
As for singer Akon, silence remains a month after the announcement of the end of his project, which never lived up to its promises. Akon City was supposed to embody an African urban renaissance. Today, it stands as proof that a wholesale transposition to Africa of concepts promoted from outside and urban fantasies is bound to come up against the wall of reality.
More than a failure, this is an invitation to reflect on the African cities of tomorrow. While it is necessary to rethink urban planning models, it is important that initiatives, whether they come from foreign investment funds or the imagination of people of African descent, address concrete issues such as population growth, access to electricity, water, and sanitation. No one is a prophet in their own country…
