- Akon City, Akon’s planned Senegalese smart city, has signed a $6 billion construction deal
- Smart city, which will exclusively use the Akoin cryptocurrency, will open fully in 2030
- KE International will build the city after it finishes a $2 billion medical and technology city in Kenya
Akon City, the planned Senegalese city that will exclusively use the singer’s Akoin cryptocurrency, has been given a completion date of 2030 after a $6 billion construction deal was signed. U.S. based consulting and engineering firm KE International has been given the task of fulfilling Akon’s ambitious dream – a futuristic 2,000-acre smart city run on solar power, with blockchain technology and his Akoin token underpinning the ‘soft’ infrastructure.
Akon City Exact Location Still Unknown
Akon first announced his plans to create Akon City at the Cannes Lions festival of Creativity in 2018, since when he has been busy launching his Akoin cryptocurrency and working on bringing Akon City to life. The 2,000 acres on which Akon plans to build Akon City was gifted to him in early 2018 by the President of Senegal, although there has been no confirmation yet of its exact location.
The press release announcing the deal describes the location as being “located on 2000 acres on the ocean, less than an hour drive South of the new International airport in Dakar”, which, unless something has been lost in translation, suggests that construction workers will have to be good swimmers.
2030 Launch Planned
Phase 1 of Akon City, which will involve the construction of core infrastructure such as roads, houses and schools, energy and waste facilities, and healthcare and policing facilities, will be ready by 2023. Phase 2 will run from 2024 to 2029 and will focus on the ‘smart’ elements of the city, such as the implementation of the Akoin digital currency and blockchain technology.
Akon seems to have chosen his Akon City construction partner well – KE International has almost finished building the $2 billion Mwale Medical and Technology City, a green City based in Western Kenya, which recently took on Akoin as its preferred mobile payment method.
