The musician and entrepreneur confirmed the signing of the agreement for Akon City earlier this week in an Instagram post. "Just finalized the agreement for AKON CITY in Senegal. Looking forward to hosting you there in the future," he wrote.
Akon had previously talked about his plans to launch a "Crypto City" in Senegal which would run on his own cyptocurrency, AKoin.
He's also been working on initiatives like the Lighting Africa Project, which aims to bring electricity to homes in West Africa through solar power.
Akon explained his plans in more detail last year in an interview with Nick Cannon: ""It's all renewable, the Akon-tainment solar city," he mentions. "It's a 10-year building block so we're doing it in stages. We started construction in March and stage two is going to be 2025."
See which African artists won big at this weekend's award shows.
This past weekend was full of awards shows and some of our favorite African acts took home some major trophies.
Najia music star,Davido won "Best African Act" at the 2017 MTV Europe Music Awards, beating out Wizkid, Nasty C, and more to claim the title. He wasn't there to accept his award, but the artists shared his excitement about the win on Instagram.
Just moments ago, Davido shared on Twitter that he also won the Best Worldwide Act at the EMAs. The artists is having a very successful year to say the least. Congrats to him!
Davido also dropped "Fia," last week, the highly anticipated follow-up to his hit song "If." Watch the video below.
Davido isn't the only afrobeats star who had a fruitful awards season, Wizkid took home three awards during this year's All Africa Music Awards in Lagos, hosted by the one and only Akon. He snagged the Best West African Artist of the year award, Song of the Year and Artist of the year.
Our new digital music service, Okaymusic, took home two awards with Nigerian star and Okaymusic signee 2Baba winning forBest Artist or Group in African Reggae & Dancehall and Cameroon's Montess winning Best Female Artist in Central Africa.
Additionally, Tiwa Savage won Best West African Act (Female) and Simi took home Best Songwriter of the Year
See the full list of winners below.
Best Central African Act (Male) – Locko
Best Central African Act (Female) – Montess
Best East African Act (Male) – Eddy Kenzo
Best East African Act (Female) – Nandy
Best Southern Africa Act (Male) – Emtee
Best West African Act (Male) – Wizkid
Best West African Act (Female) – Tiwa Savage
Best African Collaboration – Alikiba feat M.I – "AJE"
Best Artist in African Rock – Gilad Millo (Kenya)
Best Artist or Group in African RnB & Soul – Alikiba feat. M.I – "AJE"
Best Artist or Group in African Contemporary: DJ Tunez feat. Wande Coal – "Iskaba"
Best Artist or Group in African Raggae & Dancehall – 2Baba – "Holy Holy"
Best Artist or Group in African Hip Hop – Ycee – "Juice"
Best Artist of Group in African Pop – Toofan
Video of the Year – Orezi x Adasa Cookey – "Cooking Pot"
Best Female Artist in Inspirational Music: Asikey George
African Songwriter of the Year – Simi
Producer of the Year – DJ Coublon for Seyi Shay's "Yolo Yolo"
Artist of the Year – Wizkid
Song of the Year – Wizkid feat. Drake – "Come Closer"
