The Senegalese-American musician and millionaire Akon is still making progress in his quixotic quest to build a city called – yes – “Akon City” in Senegal that will run on a cryptocurrency called “Akoin”.
Originally announced in 2018, Akon planned to create a $6 billion city for Africans relying on a new digital payment method. However, today the value of Akoin has fallen to around $0.012, after being valued at $0.28 in September 2021, when it was first launched on the crypto exchange BitMart.
Senegal doesn’t recognize cryptocurrency as legal tender, but that hasn’t deterred Akon from going full steam ahead with the project.
“I want to make sure that whatever we bring cryptocurrencies into the city, it complies with all the rules and regulations,” Akon told the BBC recently.
I plan to retire in that city, Akon said. “I don’t like to use that word[s] ‘king of the city.’ But it will work out.”
Akon, however, admitted that his plans for the city were rushed and that Covid-19 derailed the project, which still hasn’t been launched. He also commented on what he would have done differently: “I would have put more things in place before I promoted it,” he said. “It was not managed properly,” he added. “I take full responsibility for that.”
“We are trying to build the city as quickly as possible,” he said, noting that the Senegalese president had “co-signed” a land lease agreement for the project for half a century.
“We believe in the city of Akon and we all support Akon to make the city of Akon come alive,” Aliou Sow, executive director of the country’s tourism board, told the BBC. “It will attract tourists and investors to the region and SAPCO is fully committed to the success of this project.”
But the cryptocurrency project has its fair share of critics. Two years before Akoin launched, the project introduced a pre-sale known as the Token of Appreciation (TOA) campaign, which would help finance the cost of creating the cryptocurrency. Billed as a “donation”, investors were lured with the promise that every dollar invested would be converted into four tokens of appreciation that could eventually be transferred to Akoin.
Akoin’s campaign said they raised nearly $300,000 during this pre-sale period, after which Akoin’s administration promised to offer a refund or an Akoin Mastercard equal to the investor’s original 2019 donation.
But the people who asked for a refund didn’t get it either. One person told the BBC they expected to wait weeks, but it has been more than a year. “We’re back to the same situation we were in years ago with a lack of communication and now everyone’s rebelling,” said one investor named Marcus.
Akon, however, assured customers that the money would be returned: “I would do a world tour just to pay them all back.”