Singer Akon's $6 billion futuristic city plans canceled

(NewsNation) — R&B singer Akon's $6 billion plans to build a futuristic city on Senegal's Atlantic Coast have been cancelled. Instead, the country plans to create a privately funded tourism hub.

In 2020, Senegal officially granted Akon 136 acres of land in Mbodiène to construct the city. But missed payments and minimal developmental progress led Sapco-Senegal, the state-owned entity responsible for developing the country’s coastal and tourism areas, to reclaim almost all the land.