(TAN): American singer Akon has finalised a deal to create his own city in home country Senegal, reports said.
He took to social media platforms to announce that he “finalized the agreement” for a city named after him – Akon City, as per reports.
“Looking forward to hosting you there in the future,” he added.
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According to reports, Akon City, that is being built in partnership with Senegal’s state-owned tourism company SAPCO, will be a fully sustainable tourist village run entirely on renewable energy generated by Akon’s solar power project, Akon Lighting Africa. The global ecotourism destination is a five-minute drive from Senegal’s capital Dakar, as per reports.
The crypto-city will reportedly be constructed on 2,000 acres of land where residents will use Akon’s own cryptocurrency, AKoin.
“Beyond his status as an artist, it is Akon, the investor who believes in Africa,” Senegal’s tourism ministry was quoted by New York Post as saying.
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Earlier this month, Akon promised to invest in tourism in Senegal, reports said. However, the hip-hop artist first announced his plans in 2018 after receiving 2,000 acres of land from Senegalese President Macky Sall, as per reports.
“With the AKoin we are building cities, the first one being in Senegal. We’re securing the land and closing out all the legislation papers for the city. We want to make it a free zone, and cryptocurrency-driven as a test market,” Akon was quoted by Hollywood.com as saying.
“If it works, we will scale it out to all the other countries in Africa so all the cities are connected. It’s going to be a 50-to-100-year project, most likely. I probably won’t even live to see it finished. But for the project in Senegal, we have a 10-year deadline for that city to be built out,” he added.
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Last year, he reportedly said construction was in progress and would take place over the next ten years, while a second phase could commence in 2025.
“When I travel, I see so many things that happen, so many people that need assistance and so many things that need to be resolved. And if you can have a billion dollars sitting in the bank while you have all these people suffering and struggling, man, to me, it’s just crazy to me. It’s like a waste of a billion dollars,” Akon, whose real name is Alioune Badara Thiam, was quoted by Revolt as saying.
Akon was born and raised in Senegal until he moved to the United States at the age of seven.
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