The singer Akon, in 2019 - Joel C Ryan / AP / SIPA

Rapper Akon has decided to invest in ecotourism on the Atlantic coast in Senegal, his family's country of origin, government and industry officials said on Thursday. Known for his tubes RnB, the American-Senegalese singer and producer of 46 years signed this Tuesday in Senegal an agreement with the public company Sapco (Society for the development and promotion of the coasts and tourist areas of Senegal).

"Beyond his status as an artist, it is Akon, the investor who has faith in Africa, who is received," said the Ministry of Tourism in a statement issued on the occasion of this signing. The contours of the final project remain to be defined.

An ecotourism complex

The secretary general of Sapco, Alioune Ndiaye, said Thursday that the signed document was a memorandum of understanding and that the amount of the investment was not yet decided. Akon intends to erect a complex in the village of Mbodiene, south of Dakar, he said without further details.

A spokesperson for the Ministry of Tourism spoke of a sustainable tourism village project. Part of the Senegalese press goes so far as to anticipate the construction of a “sustainable” and “futuristic” city, a veritable “Akon City”, on dozens of hectares.

Ecotourism interests celebrities

The rapper, Alioune Badara Thiam of his real name, was born in the United States to Senegalese parents. He spent part of his childhood in Senegal before returning to live across the Atlantic at the age of seven and later gain notoriety.

He is not the only celebrity to return to the sources for similar investment. British actor and director Idris Elba plans to build an eco-responsible tourist complex on an island in Sierra Leone, another country in West Africa where his father was from. He was received there for the first time in December and received citizenship.

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  • United States
  • Tourism
  • Planet
  • Rapper
  • ecology
  • Senegal