Akon City just got the green light in Senegal

Rapper and philanthropist Akon has finally been given the green light to build the world’s first “crypto city” – aptly named Akon City – in Senegal, Africa.

He first unveiled his ambitious plans for the city of the future back in 2018. The singer said it would be built on 2,000 acres of land that was gifted to him by the President of Senegal, Macky Sall.

Akon City to go ahead in Senegal

According to a tweet by the singer yesterday, he has just finished finalising the agreement. He said, “Looking forward to hosting you there in the future.”

It’s not often that we associate Africa with being at the cutting-edge of emerging technology. However, riddled with numerous problems from natural disasters to corruption and a lack of financial inclusion, blockchain technology possesses several important qualities that could help it flourish in this continent.

Moreover, using Senegal as the base is no coincidence. Akon is of Senegalese descent. He has also been raising awareness for his cryptocurrency Akoin, which will be the only currency tradeable in Akon City.

According to reports, Akon City will be constructed over a period of 10 years in the seaside area of Mbodiene, a stone’s through from the country’s international airport.

It will be designed as a sustainable and environmentally-friendly tourism city. The singer has signed, according to LADbible, a “memorandum of understanding” with Senegal’s state-owned tourism company SAPCO to this regard.

“It’s all renewable,” he said in an interview with Los Angeles rap radio station Power106. “It’s a 10-year building block, so we’re doing it in stages. We started construction in March [2019] and stage two is going to be 2025.”

Building the futuristic city is estimated to cost around $2 billion. While we’ll have to wait another decade to see the results, the Akoin token, set to power the city, will be available later this year.

What exactly its use case will be in the meantime remains to be seen. But Akon isn’t the only major personality taking a bet on this region.

Twitter’s Jack Dorsey recently revealed his plans for business expansion into Africa, while the United Nations believes that Africa could benefit most from cryptocurrencies and “disruptive innovation”.