Akon announced that he had managed to conclude the final paperwork for his upcoming Akon City to be built in Senegal.
Multi-award winning singer, songwriter and music producer Akon has revealed that his Akon City has received regulatory approval. In a tweet posted by the singer on Monday, Jan 13, he revealed that he had “finalized the agreement” for the city.
Just finalized the agreement for AKON CITY in Senegal. Looking forward to hosting you there in the future pic.twitter.com/dsoYpmjnpf
— AKON (@Akon) January 13, 2020
Akon City
Plans for the futuristic city were first revealed back in 2018 in a personal announcement at the Cannes Lions international festival. Akon city is located in Mbodiene, a village barely 5 minutes away from Senegal’s new international airport.
Akon City will sit on 2,000 acres of land. The singer has previously said that President of Senegal Macky Sall gave the land to him. It will also be the first certified Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) city in Senegal.
Erection estimates suggest that Akon City will cost $2 billion in total and will take 10 years to complete. In an interview with Los Angeles-based Power 106 FM, Akon specified that the construction for Akon city already began in March 2019. Stage two of construction will begin in 2025.
Furthermore, crypto will fully power Akon City. It will use the Akoin digital currency.
The Akoin Currency
All trades and transactions in the Akon city will be powered by the singer’s digital currency, the Akoin. The crypto was initially revealed in 2018 but not much has been revealed about its inner workings. Regardless, Akon is pro-crypto and believes that cryptocurrency will do a lot for Africa as a whole. He said:
“I think that blockchain and crypto could be the savior for Africa in many ways because it brings the power back to the people and brings the security back into the currency system and also allows the people to utilize it in ways where they can advance themselves and not allow government to do those that are keeping them down.”
The Akoin website also has a few more details including support for decentralized applications (DApps). It says that the asset will fully launch sometime before the end of the third quarter of 2020.’
Other Akon Projects
In 2014, the singer started the “Akon Lighting Africa” project, aimed at providing solar energy to several parts of the continent. Current estimates suggest that the project has successfully provided power to 600 million people living in Africa. Akon has once suggested that having a billion dollars sitting in the bank is useless if there are still people suffering and struggling.
The singer has also revealed a desire to contest in the upcoming U.S. presidential election.
“I’ve been thinking about running for 2020 very seriously. But I didn’t want to just do it because I feel like I want to continue doing what I’m doing and hope that builds me enough momentum [for people] to say, “You know what, if you run we’ll support you”, said Akon.