Featured Image Credit: Andrew Chin / Stringer / Getty
Celebrities branching out from what they're known for isn't exactly new. After all, Bruce Willis, Sylvester Stallone, and Arnold Schwarzenegger helped found Planet Hollywood, Gwyneth Paltrow is known for Goop, and Dan Aykroyd is behind Crystal Head Vodka. Still, all of these A-list endeavours pale in comparison to Akon City.
Real name Aliaune Damala Bouga Time Puru Nacka Lu Lu Lu Badara Akon Thiam, Akon (yes, the rapper) once had ambitious plans to build his own $6 billion city in Senegal.
Following the release of "Locked Up" in 2004, Akon's profile continued to rise as he dipped into a variety of weird and wonderful ventures away from music.
This includes him owning a diamond mine, launching Akon Lighting as an effort to bring electricity to Africa via solar energy, and being listed as the top-selling artist for master ringtones in the Guinness World Records.
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All of that is wild enough, but what about Akon City?
First announced in 2018, Akon was inspired by the success of the Marvel Cinematic Universe's Black Panther and wanted to build his own futuristic African city. Marvel Comics's Black Panther franchise and the movie of the same name focus on the fictional realm of Wakanda. This high-tech utopia is cut off from the rest of the world and flourishes on its own tech.
Akon City was supposed to be a real-life Wakanda, utilizing modern technologies like blockchain and cryptocurrency, while also having its own central currency called Akoin.
With the support of Senegal's tourism development agency, SAPCO-Sénégal, renderings for Akon City were unveiled in 2020.
This included plans for the development near the rural farming village of Mbodiène, which lies 100 km south of Dakar.
The first phase of Akon City was due to be completed by 2023, including roads, a hospital campus, houses, hotels, schools, a waste facility, and a photovoltaic solar power plant. Obviously, that came and went with little of Akon City being left to show from his endeavours.
Aside from a foundation stone laid in a ceremony in 2020, it's fair to say progress on Akon City has been more than a little sluggish.
Akon himself has blamed the COVID-19 pandemic for the project's setbacks, while SAPCO-Sénégal is said to have issued an August 2024 ultimatum demanding he start the project or return 90% of the land given to him. It was around this time that Akoin had plummeted from its $0.15 launch to just $0.003.
Still, this wasn't quite the end of Akon City.
The rapper was sued in the USA by former business partner, DeVyne Stephens, arguing that Akon City and Akoin showed "many of the trademark characteristics…of fraudulent business ventures such as Ponzi schemes and pyramid schemes."
In a February 2026 interview with Kid L, Akon gave us a bizarre update where he said he stopped promoting Akon City because it had become a 'target'. Maintaining that the project had become a hotbed of misinformation, he explained: "Africa is one of those kinds of places that the system had a design to keep it down because of all of the resources, and how they could leverage it.
“Projects like this, all it has to do is spark confidence in the people. I realized that the more they knew what I was doing, the more the sabotage started to come. I started to see a lot of fake news and bots online.”
He maintains that headlines about it 'not happening' and land being taken were getting bigger and bigger, so he decided to let things sizzle off.
The ultimate fate of Akon City is even more wild.
Speaking to the BBC, SAPCO-Sénégal head Serigne Mamadou Mboup reiterated: "The Akon City project no longer exists. Fortunately, an agreement has been reached between Sapco and the entrepreneur Alioune Badara Thiam [aka Akon].
“What he's preparing with us is a realistic project, which Sapco will fully support."
At the time of writing, Akon City's only structure is an incomplete reception building in the middle of nowhere.
As for the 'realistic' revamp of Akon City, we'll sit and patiently wait to see if it magically appears.
