The project’s details envision 2,000 acres along the
Atlantic coast in a region 62 miles south of Dakar in Senegal. Featured:
condominiums, office parks, a university, an ocean resort, and a hospital. City
planners aim to hire workers from West Africa and source materials locally,
though architecture is being led by Bakri & Associates Development Consultants
in Dubai.
The project is reported to have established $4 billion toward its target of $6 billion of funding, though backers have largely not been disclosed. The city will operate on Akon’s proprietary cryptocurrency, Akoin. After two years of planning and development, Akon announced that they are breaking ground in 2021.
A year after singer Akon laid the first stone of the $6 billion futuristic city he vowed to build for his native Senegal, the site remains grassland.
The stone itself sits at the bottom of a dirt track in a
field; a small placard advertising the megaproject has fallen off it.
Construction of "Akon City," a project due to
feature ultramodern twisting skyscrapers, was already meant to have begun near
the Atlantic Ocean village of Mbodiene.
But building work is yet to start, prompting residents who
were hoping for jobs to wonder about its future.
"They laid the foundation stone with a lot of speeches
and promises," said Jules Thiamane, a 35-year-old local who works in the
tourism industry.
"Compared to everything that was announced, I don't
think we have seen much yet."
Akon -- a Senegalese-American singer-songwriter best known
for his R&B hits such as "Smack That" -- launched his eponymous
city in September 2020, to great fanfare and international media attention.
The city's otherworldly design is partly inspired by
Wakanda, he said at the time, referring to the fictional African city of the
"Black Panther" Marvel movie and comic series.
Akon City's planners also say it will be a "beacon of
innovation and human development" that will boost industry in the West
African state of Senegal.
A stadium, casino, luxury high-rise apartment complexes, and
an education district that will "accommodate the most prestigious
universities in the world" are also part of the plans.
Sleepy hamlet
The glittering vision is a far cry from the existing sleepy
hamlet of Mbodiene, about 100 kilometres (60 miles) south of the capital, where
pigs roll in the muck and donkeys amble along the road.
Locals interviewed by AFP said they knew little about Akon
City, nor why construction had been delayed.
The ceremonial stone was laid on August 31 2020 and
construction was scheduled to begin early this year.
A hospital, school, shopping mall, homes, police station,
waste centre and solar power plant are supposed to be completed in 2023 -- and
the whole city by 2030.
Speaking on an untarmacked road as horned cattle grazed
behind him, 25-year-old student Ahmeth Deme wondered whether the project had
been cancelled.
Badara Diakhate, the deputy mayor of the local commune, said
he was unaware of the exact reason for the delay but that "people want
things to get going."
He welcomed investment in the village and said that delays
were common, especially given the pandemic.
Disillusioned
At $6 billion, the planned cost of Akon City is huge -- it
is not much smaller than Senegal's overall 2020 budget of about $7.5 billion.
The pomp and size the project elicited scepticism in Senegal
at first, where developers and politicians often tout the merits of pet
building works.
About 40 percent of Senegal's 16 million people live below
the poverty line, according to a World Bank metric.
A lack of clarity regarding Akon City's funding also raised
questions.
Paul Martin, from the US-based firm KE International which
won the Akon City construction contract, said that Kenyan entrepreneur Julius
Mwale is the lead investor.
He added that he could not disclose information on other
investors for confidentiality reasons, but said more than $4 billion in funding
had been raised.
Construction of Akon City will start in October, Martin said,
after a similar Mwale-funded city is completed in Kenya.
"The first 12 months incorporated planning, approvals,
procurement and recruitment of sub-contractors," Martin said by email,
referring to Akon City.
But tourism worker Thiamane said that he'd grown
disillusioned, pointing to earlier failed development projects in Mbodiene.
"What is shared in the village at the moment is the
beginning of disappointment," he said.
Akon's team, and the Senegalese state tourism agency SAPCO,
which is managing the project on the government's behalf, did not respond to
repeated solicitations by AFP for comment.
'Still have hope'
Most Mbodiene residents cited the potential benefits of Akon
City and said it could bring jobs.
"This is big for us," said Philomene Bamimba, who
heads a local women's association.
David Seck Sene, president of the village youth association,
admitted there was confusion around the delays but said: "I still have
hope. I don't see how a project like this could stop tomorrow."
He, like other residents, is pushing for education and
training so that villagers are not sidelined to labourers' roles in Akon City.
KE International's Paul Martin said the aim is to empower
locals to fill high-skilled jobs, adding that training would start when
construction does.
No one in Mbodiene interviewed by AFP was aware of these
plans, however.