Source: Gabriel Olsen / Getty
Akon City, Senegal. Yup, it’s a real thing.
It’s official, Akon’s city, named Akon City, in his native country of Senegal is now officially open to the public. The country will operate on its own cryptocurrency named Akoin and it’s a short five-minute drive to the new airport in the country.
Last month, Akon told Nick Cannon on Power 106 that the city would be built in separate stages. “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.”
While everyone is happy that Akon has started a city, there are some questions to be raised. The city is expected to cost $2 billion, now assuming Akon doesn’t have $2 billion, which he probably doesn’t, where is that money coming from?
The answer is the Chinese government, the Chinese government has rapidly increased its “funding” to African countries and the reasons are being called into suspicion. There are people who believe China is loaning this money with belief that African countries will not be able to pay all the money back and thereby China will “own” the land they loaned money out for the buy, or that they invested into the area. A new wave of imperialism of sorts.
According to Euro News, building the futuristic city is estimated to cost $2 billion, which prompted Cannon to ask if Akon was a billionaire. The Grammy-award-winning musician dodged the question but signaled that those with money should be giving back.
“If you can have a billion dollars sitting in the bank, while you have all these people suffering, it’s crazy to me. It’s like a waste of a billion dollars,” he explained.
