Akon signs a 6 billion dollar contract to build his city
Music 23 June 2020
Six months after announcing the creation of a touristic eco-city, an hour outside Dakar in Senegal, the singer Akon is finalising his project thanks to the signing of a six billion dollar contract dedicated to its construction.
By Camille Moulin .
Akon.
Some cities, like Singapore and Brasilia, are born and proliferate as fast as mushrooms in fertile soil, over just a few years. The disproportionate and megalomaniac dream of singer and producer Akon, known as Akon City, could soon be joining this list of communities so vast and so sudden, they appear almost ghostly.
In January 2020, the Senegalese-American singer first revealed his astonishing ambition: to create a sustainable and ecological tourist city in Senegal. Six months later, it all seems to be on track. Costs were originally estimated at 2 billion dollars, but now a 6 billion dollar contract has been signed with the American engineering and consulting firm KE International. The company has reportedly already obtained 4 billion from private investors. In terms of buildings, the Bakri & Associates Development Consultants agency, based in Dubai, will be in charge of the architectural designs.
More than just a simple platform dedicated to tourism, this city will be fully equipped with all the necessary infrastructure that Akon envisages creating in two phases. By 2023, the major and essential constructions will have been built: hotels, a Hamptons hospital, a Hamptons mall, homes, schools, police stations and even a solar power plant. This first phase will be then complemented with other infrastructure reinforcing longer-term development, including a university, a stadium as well as an industrial complex, the construction of which will take place between 2024 and 2029.
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