Akons Wakanda, grazing goats and a collapsing crypto dream

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RnB singer Akon says his much-delayed plans for Akon City – an African metropolis on the Senegalese coast – are “100,000% in motion”.

Although goats are currently grazing on the site, he says the reviews will look “super stupid” in the future.

In an exclusive interview with the BBC, the Smack That singer also assured fans awaiting reimbursement from his Token of Appreciation cryptocurrency campaign that they would get their money, even if he had to pay them out of his own pocket. .

Widely known for his string of 2000s hits, Akon, who was born in the United States but partly grew up in Senegal, announced two ambitious projects in 2018 that were meant to represent the future of African society.

The first was a $6 billion ($5 billion) city with boldly curving skyscrapers. It was to run on the second initiative – a brand new cryptocurrency called Akoin.

But several years on both projects have encountered difficulties and delays and the site where the city is proposed to be built remains a wasteland.

On a cloudy day in September 2020, Akon, dressed in a powder blue suit, walked confidently across a dusty red patch of disused land. There, to meet him, was a group of journalists from around the world who had gathered for the hitmaker’s latest launch: a supercity filled with stunning architecture.

Residents cheered as a veil was removed from a plaque marking the future construction site. But two years over whether the plans will ever materialize is dividing communities in the region.

“We thought we could work on it but at this rate maybe our kids will,” a local resident told the BBC. “We remain hopeful for the project. We hope that our children will stay here to work.”

Another resident said he no longer believed in the project before adding “when he comes, if he finds us here, we will see how we can contribute to it”.

Akon City was first compared in the press to Wakanda, the stunning African metropolis featured in the Black Panther movies and comics. The first phase of the city containing roads, a campus, a shopping center, residences, hotels, a police station, a school, a landfill and a solar power plant was to be completed by the end of 2023. But after multiple delays, little ground seems to have changed since the launch event.

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“I’m only here in the presence of goats,” local journalist Borso Tall told me. “It’s completely empty…no signs of construction just a long row of green trees and red dirt.”

The site where Akon City is planned is empty except for the foundation stone which was unveiled in 2020

But Akon remains adamant that his ambitious plans will always be realized.

When we meet in central London, he admits that in hindsight “I would have put more things in place before promoting it”.

He also blames Covid, which he says meant “everything would be pushed back for two years”.

However, the world was already in the grip of the pandemic when he hosted Akon City’s promotion ceremony to international media in August 2020.

“I intend to retire in this city,” he says confidently. “I don’t like to use the word king of town. But that’s what it’s going to be.”

“We are trying to get the city built as quickly as possible,” he says, adding that he has a lease on the land for the next 50 years and that his project has “been co-signed by the current president”.

The Senegalese government tourism office SAPCO recently reaffirmed its commitment to the project.

“We believe in the city of Akon and we all support Akon so that the city of Akon comes to life,” said Me Aliou Sow, CEO of SAPCO. “It will attract tourists and investors to the region and SAPCO is fully committed to the success of this project.”

Akon says he has changed both the construction companies and the architects he is working with on the project, adding that his new partners understand Africa, the terrain and have “real credibility on a global scale”. Its overall objectives remain ambitious.

“We want the big skyscrapers. My goal is to try to build something that people think is impossible in Africa, right?”

Several celebrity finance websites estimate Akon’s net worth to be between $60 million and $80 million, leading some to wonder where the money will come from for a project of this size. His team claims to have set up an international consortium that will fund it with private investment.

Akon said excavation work at the site will finally begin before the end of the year, adding that further announcements will be made at a youth center he has built for residents of a local village. Construction work on Akon City, he acknowledges, “hasn’t been fully calendered yet.”

Initial plans for Akon City, dubbed it “Crypto City” and in August 2020, Akon said the city’s financial infrastructure would be “built from” his own Akoin cryptocurrency. But the cryptocurrency has been plagued with its own delays and difficulties.

“It was not well managed,” he concedes. “I take full responsibility for that.”

Before launching its Akoin cryptocurrency, the Akoin website announced a pre-sale opportunity called the Token of Appreciation (TOA) campaign.

The campaign was announced more than two years before the Akoin cryptocurrency itself became available. It was a fundraiser to cover Akoin’s launch costs later.

The money sent for TOAs was presented as a “donation” on the Akoin TOA website page, but there was a special incentive to invest during this time. Contributors were told that for every dollar invested, they would receive up to four Appreciation Tokens which would then be converted into Akoin.

“I genuinely believed in the ecosystem they were looking to build,” says Marcus (pseudonym) who lives in the UK. “Once in a while I would put in a few thousand pounds.”

The Token of Appreciation campaign ended in October 2019. Akoin’s official Twitter feed claimed that he raised $290,000. More than two years later, TOA donors had a choice in the official Akoin Telegram group.

“We are now able to give TOA holders a choice,” the administrator wrote. “Receive a refund of their original donation or receive an Akoin MasterCard that will have the value of their original donation.”

Some TOA donors have decided to wait for the promised rewards. For now, they are aware of an appreciation token, but it has no functionality. Others tried to claim their money.

“I didn’t ask for the refund, they offered the refund,” notes Marcus, whose faith in the project was beginning to wane. “The refund was supposed to come a few weeks later. We are now over a year old. And we are back in the same situation we were in years ago with the lack of communication and now everyone is angry. “

Marcus is not alone. In the Akoin Telegram groups, I have spoken to a number of other people around the world who say they have requested refunds but are still waiting to receive their money.

“It’s extremely frustrating,” says Reggie, an American living in Asia who has also donated to the campaign. “Yeah, I got mad about that, you know, a number of times.”

I submitted cases like Marcus and Reggie to Akon, who denied knowing that Akoin campaign donors were still waiting for refunds. He says he will get involved in rectifying the situation until TOA’s donors are satisfied.

“Even if I have to go in my own pocket,” he adds. “I’m very serious. I’d do a world tour just to pay them all back.”

The Akoin cryptocurrency itself was launched on Bitmart in September 2021. Its value at the time was 0.23 ($0.28), but it has since fallen significantly, preceding a crash in the broader market. of cryptocurrency. Today, the price of Akoin is only 0.01.

It was also questioned if it would even be legal for Akoin to operate as the primary payment method in Akon City.

The current legal currency in Senegal is the CFA franc, which is regulated and issued by the Central Bank of West African States (BCEAO), who share the money. Yahoo Finance reported last year that “the institution has warned of the dangers of adopting cryptocurrency and called it illegal.” We approached the BCEAO to comment on the legality of a city running on cryptocurrency but they did not respond.

“Those are a lot of the concerns I have myself,” acknowledges Akon. “I want to make sure that however we involve crypto in the city, it aligns with all the rules and regulations.”

So, will ordinary transactions in Akon’s proposed “Crypto City” still take place with his own crypto? It doesn’t seem clear. “We will have understood it when the city is in place, that’s for sure,” he promises.

But after two years of waiting, not everyone is convinced.

“I think a lot of us did our research, but it turned out like nothing happened,” Reggie says. “I would like to recover my funds and leave”.

Listen to BBC Trending: Akon’s Wakanda and a Ruined Crypto Dream on the World Service. Download the podcast or listen online.

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