Akon predicts building his own city in Senegal will take 10 years but remains coy over billionaire net worth

Akon has remained coy about whether or not he’s a billionaire, but did reveal his brand new city in Senegal could take up to 10 years to build.

The Locked Up singer revealed his incredibly ambitious plans during a chat with Nick Cannon last week, and said the city should be completed over the course of 10 years.

And yes, it will be called Akon City.

In the interview for Nick’s show on Power 106 Los Angeles, Akon said: ‘It’s Akon city.

‘It’s all renewable, the Akon-tainment solar city. It’s all renewable. A real physical place, it’s going to have a real airport. 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.’

When Nick, 39, so subtly mentioned that it would surely take a billionaire to be able to build a new city, Akon admitted he thinks it’s cheesy if an actual billionaire publicly declared themselves one.

The 46-year-old explained: ‘I always felt like if you have to label yourself a billionaire, I don’t even think billionaires label themselves billionaires. Because you have no idea [how much you’re worth].’

Preach it.

‘When I hear stuff like that, it makes me sad in such a way because when I travel I see so many things that happen. So many people that need… things to be resolved. And if you have a billion dollars sitting in the bank, while you have all these people suffering, it’s crazy to me.

‘It’s like a waste of a billion dollars.’

Akon, real name Aliaune Akon Thiam, launched his own cryptocurrency called AKoin in 2017 and hopes it’ll become the common currency in Akon City and wider Africa.

Predicting what the future could look like, Akon said: ‘You might just go to [Africa] for vacation and when you transfer American dollars into they money, you might be transferring it into AKoins. That’s the goal.’