Akon City: how $6 billion turned into a wasteland with crypto ghosts (5 photos + 1 video)
When rapper Akon — the same one who sang about “Lonely” (1.2 billion views on YouTube)
and “Don't Matter” — announced the construction of a futuristic metropolis in Senegal in 2018, investors gasped. The presentation renderings sparkled with curved skyscrapers, solar panels covered the roofs, and electric cars raced along “smart” streets. 
Journalists immediately dubbed the project "real Wakanda", referring to the technological paradise from "Black Panther". Six billion dollars in investments, its own cryptocurrency Akoin and promises to make Senegal "African Singapore" - what could go wrong? 
The main feature of the city was supposed to be a fully digital economy based on the Akoin cryptocurrency. "No cash, only blockchain!" - said Akon. Only the Senegalese authorities gently reminded that the country already has an official currency - the CFA franc, and the Central Bank of West Africa treats crypto in much the same way as pranks.
When Akoin began to "sink" in 2022, the musician himself admitted: "Yes, we screwed up with management." Investors are still waiting for their money back, and the latest news on the project's website is dated 2021. 
An 800-hectare plot of land near the village of Mbodiene was supposed to be transformed into a techie's paradise. According to the plan, by 2023, there would already be a hospital, shopping mall, school, police station, waste recycling center, and solar power plant.
Reality? The satellite photo shows only one unfinished booth - apparently, "an alien reception area," as the locals sarcastically call it. There are no roads, no electricity, they even forgot to screw in a sign with the name of the city.
"We were promised jobs," complains fisherman Amadou Diouf to the BBC. "Now we joke that the only ones who "work" here are the lizards."
In 2024, the Senegalese authorities officially closed the project. "Akon City no longer exists," the head of the tourism department dryly stated.
However, Akon is not giving up: he is now discussing a "more realistic" plan for the development of the same territory with the government. They hint that by 2026 (for the Youth Olympics) at least a couple of hotels and an embankment may appear here. If we're lucky.
That same booth.
