(NewsNation) — R&B singer Akon’s $6 billion plans to build a futuristic city on Senegal’s Atlantic Coast have been cancelled. Instead, the country plans to create a privately funded tourism hub.
In 2020, Senegal officially granted Akon 136 acres of land in Mbodiène to construct the city. But missed payments and minimal developmental progress led Sapco-Senegal, the state-owned entity responsible for developing the country’s coastal and tourism areas, to reclaim almost all the land.
Announced in 2018, “Akon City” was initially pitched as a “real-life Wakanda,” inspired by the fictional, futuristic African nation from the Marvel “Black Panther” films. The project was to include a hospital, a university, a city powered by solar energy and his own cryptocurrency.
To date, only a youth center, basketball court and information center have been built. Akon retains a small portion of the land.