There’s a parking garage for flying cars planned for Akon City, which are to be purchased using the new cryptocurrency “Akoin.”
But the plans for Akon’s $6 billion project have raised as many, if not more, questions than answers for those already living in Ngueniene, the municipality in Senegal where the singer is planning the site.
“Akon came to meet us. He said he’ll do this. It could be real or not real – but I think it’s real,” Magueye Ndao, mayor of Ngueniene, told Reuters, which spoke to local leaders about the project. “We welcome this project with open arms and pray that everything Akon told us will be realised.”
The St. Louis-born Senegalese-American singer behind Akon Lighting Africa has made many promises for what the website describes as “the beacon of innovation and human development”.
Paul Martin, director of the project at KE International, told Reuters that $4 billion of the $6 billion budget has been secured from a number of investors, including Kenyan businessman Julius Mwale. Designed by Dubai-based architect Hussein Bakri, who is Lebanese, the plans are ambitious and not everyone shares Ndao’s optimism.
“During the 15 years or so that I worked at APIX, I saw proposals from people who wanted to make cities all over,” Xavier Ricou, an architect and former director of Senegal’s agency for promoting investment and major projects, told Reuters, adding that most were abandoned due to inadequate funding, changes in government and other reasons.
Click here for more.
SOURCE: The Hill – Anagha Srikanth
Comments