Akon’s $6 billion ‘Wakanda’ city dream project abandoned by Senegal

Wakanda, the dazzling, ultra-advanced African kingdom from Marvel’s Black Panther, captured the world’s imagination with its soaring skyscrapers, clean energy, and revolutionary technology.

Among its many admirers was global pop star Akon, who set out to bring a real-life version of that Afrofuturist utopia to Senegal. In 2018, he unveiled plans for Akon City, a $6 billion smart city powered by renewable energy and a custom cryptocurrency, “Akoin.” But as inspiring as Wakanda was on screen, building it in the real world proved far more difficult, because there is a difference between fiction and facts. After years of little to no progress, the Senegalese government has now officially scrapped the project, citing a lack of funding and stalled construction.

Akon’s ‘wakanda’ dream meets harsh realities

Spanning 800 hectares along Senegal’s Atlantic coast, Akon City was pitched as a high-tech hub filled with hospitals, schools, shopping centers, and curvaceous glass towers. Its goal was to transform Mbodiène, a quiet rural area 100 kilometers from Dakar, into a futuristic metropolis. The city was to run entirely on solar power and use Akoin for all transactions, bypassing traditional currency. But five years later, the land remains largely untouched.

Aside from an incomplete reception building, no roads, housing, or energy infrastructure have been built. Locals say they were promised jobs and development, but “nothing has changed.” Akoin, too, has faltered, with Akon admitting poor management and legal hurdles related to cryptocurrency regulation in Senegal.

From Sci-fi dream to practical reality

The Senegalese tourism agency SAPCO, which had partnered with Akon, confirmed that the Akon City project is no longer moving forward. Its head, Serigne Mamadou Mboup, told the BBC that a new, more “realistic” plan is now being developed in collaboration with the artist. Officials say that despite the failure of the original project, the site still holds strategic value, especially with the 2026 Youth Olympic Games approaching and growing tourism in the region.

While Akon City as envisioned is now defunct, the government remains open to future collaboration, this time grounded not in fantasy but in practical and achievable goals. As for Wakanda, it may still live on, but only in the movies.