It was around April in 2021 when American rap artist and singer Akon visited Uganda in search of investment opportunities that would extend his business footprint in Africa, where his efforts include a planned futuristic city.
According to fresh reports, the Uganda Lands Commission (ULC) has handed over a land title to the lands minister, Judith Nabakooba, to facilitate the establishment of Akon City. Soon following receiving the title indeture from Prof. Nyeko Pen Mogi, the acting chairperson of ULC, on her visit to the village on Friday, Nabakooba revealed the land will be given to the Senegalese-American singer Aliaune Damala Badara aka Akon to set up his second city in Africa
known as Akon City.
Nyeko told the minister that the land estimating one square mile (640 acres) was under freehold register Volume 53 Folio 9 and is owned by ULC. “We visited this land in November 2020 and it’s a beautiful place, but our concern was that such a place with beautiful sceneries overlooking Lake Victoria was not generating income for the country. It’s not creating any job for anybody in this place,” Nyeko said.
He said the site was extremely satisfactory for a tourism city and international conferences, given the distinguishing topography overlooking the lake. Nabakooba, who had as well travelled with the state minister for housing and urban development, Persis Namuganza and the Mukono resident district commissioner, Hajat Fatuma Ndisaba Nabitaka, opened up that any form of city, be it satellite or tourism city Akon sets up, will be highly important for the development of the country.
“You have given the title which is in your name, but the task is to find who are the other interested parties in this piece of land,” Nabakooba said. According to the minister, the fact that the land was yet to be developed provided higher chances of redeeming it through reaching consensus with the other parties. On his tour of the country last year as a state guest, the American rapper announced a plan to invest $6b in the futuristic Akon City. Akon City is envisaged to have its own hospital, police station and even its own cryptocurrency already named AKoin. It promises a bit of everything: a seaside resort, a tech hub, recording studios and even a zone dubbed “Ugawood” that developers hope will help develop Uganda’s film industry.
Akon has been building a city in his native country of Senegal over the last few years. If all goes per plan, the establishment of the Akon City in Uganda will be complete by 2036. Namuganza said her ministry was interested in seeing the area being transformed with beautiful infrastructure in order to exploit the beautiful scenery. “It is a good place and we pray our target comes to pass,” she said. A Grammy-nominated singer and record producer, Akon has made headlines in recent years as a pan-African businessman interested in opportunities on the continent of 1.3 billion people.
In December 2020 a company associated with Akon reached a deal with a state miner to develop a copper and cobalt mine in resource-rich Congo. Akon, who was born in the United States to Senegalese parents, spent much of his childhood in the West African country, where authorities have embraced him as a native son and praised him for
investing in Africa at a time of such global financial uncertainty. Akon, 47, rose to fame with a debut album in 2004. His hit songs include “Smack That,” featuring rapper Eminem.
Akon, started a group in 2014 that backs solar energy projects in the rural parts of many African countries. The inspiration for Akon Lighting Africa was deeply personal: he found his grandmother was still using candles in Senegal to light her home.
