MBODIENE, Sept 2 — A year after singer Akon laid the first stone of the US$6 billion futuristic city he vowed to build for his native Senegal, the site remains grassland.
“They laid the foundation stone with a lot of speeches and promises,” said Jules Thiamane, a 35-year-old local who works in the tourism industry. Akon — a Senegalese-American singer-songwriter best known for his R&B hits such as— launched his eponymous city in September 2020, to great fanfare and international media attention.
The ceremonial stone was laid on August 31 2020 and construction was scheduled to begin early this year. He welcomed investment in the village and said that delays were common, especially given the pandemic.At US$6 billion, the planned cost of Akon City is huge — it is not much smaller than Senegal’s overall 2020 budget of about US$7.5 billion.