All results
Talk about a way to watch the plot thicken in a business relationship gone awry. As previously reported by AfroTech, the ex-business partner of Akon claims that the singer still owes him four million dollars. In a new allegation, he now says that the Senegal native’s plans to build his own city could be a Ponzi scheme. AfroTech also shared the news of Akon’s plans to begin building a futuristic city in Africa. Per reports from Complex, Devyne Stephens has now asked a judge to freeze Akon’s New York assets in an effort to get his money more quickly. Those reports also reveal that the court documents say Akon is “flagrantly breaching two separate contractual promises.”
2021 to 2022 was a time when the trend of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) was booming. Celebrities such as Stephen Curry were purchasing NFTs for hundreds of thousands of dollars. In addition, a whopping number of people were launching their own exclusive collections and even creating their own cryptocurrency.
Akon and his former business partner are making headlines, but not for good reason. According to PageSix, the R&B singer is being accused of refusing to pay his end of a contract agreement with Devyne Stephens, the music executive who helped to launch his career and has worked with the likes of Destiny’s Child, Jay-Z, Pink, TLC, and Usher. He claims that he is owed $750,000 and nearly $3 million in royalties. The original 2018 agreement confirms that Akon agreed to pay Stephens $3.25 million over the span of four years. However, the updated suit alleges that he hasn’t paid the final $750,000 installment.
Payment gateway CinetPay has received $2.4 million in seed funding to further its mission to provide an online payment solution in Francophone Africa. The round was led by Pan-African venture capital fund 4DX Ventures and unicorn Flutterwave, TechCrunch reports. Founded by Idriss Monthe and Daniel Dindji, the birth of CinetPay was due to an uncanny experience Monthe experienced after a slew of issues arose to collect payments at his former startup CinetCore. “When we launched our website to sell domain names online, we faced difficulty in collecting online payment after creating many PayPal accounts which were blocked by PayPal because we were in Africa,” Monthe said, according to TechCrunch. Determined to create a solution that would benefit many others who face similar obstacles in Francophone Africa, CinetPay was born in 2016. Enlightened by the realization that the majority of the African population have a mobile bank account, and up to 20 percent have access to a bank and...
Akon is staying busy with his blockchain-powered cryptocurrency Akoin. As AfroTech previously told you, the currency was created to encourage learning, earning, spending and savings opportunities throughout Africa that is said to expand into other economies. The platform provides a solution to the current challenges faced by entrepreneurs such as inflation, limited access to business tools and services, and restricted government regulation, among others. Now Akon is finding new ways to leverage the continent’s economy through a newly launched cryptocurrency card that can reportedly be used anywhere where MasterCard is accepted. “It’s Done. The official AKOIN Card!!! Which allows you to now spend your AKOIN (AKN) were ever master card is excepted. I’m sure you can’t freely spend your crypto in any of your favorite stores right? Well you can with AKOIN (AKN) so grab yours now on BitMart.com before we expand to the major exchanges,” Akon said in an announcement made via Instagram....
Akon is steadily building up his African crypto-city empire, and now he’s got his sights set on another city outside of Senegal. According to reports from the Ugandan government, they share that they’ve allocated one square mile of land to the rapper and business mogul to allow construction to begin on his cryptocurrency-based city, REVOLT reports. Following the announcement of his plans to transform Senegal into a futuristic city, Akon is now preparing to build his second AKoin-operated city in Uganda which is set to be completed by the year 2036. Though he has not yet released details on how much the new construction project will cost, we know that its sister city was a $6 billion costly operation. Additionally, amenities have not been announced either but Complex predicts that it will likely follow the same model as Senegal’s blueprint — which includes a Hamptons Hospital campus, Hamptons Mall, a school, police department, and waste management service as well as parks, stadiums,...
Celebrities are cashing in on the cryptocurrency world, and thanks to their global audiences they have the power to spread knowledge about blockchain to the masses. Cryptocurrency has become a hot button topic this year as the general public starts to catch on to the digitized money trend. Therefore, we’re seeing more and more celebrities express their interest in this booming market. At the 2014 Milken Institute’s Global Conference, rapper and entrepreneur Akon said, “[Bitcoin] is going to change the world from a money transactional standpoint not just for Africa, but for everywhere.” His and other celebrity endorsements from some of the industry’s biggest names are all helping our society shift into a more tech-friendly future where digital currency is a trusted source. As cryptocurrency grows in popularity among public figures, we’re sure to see an uptick in people seeking it out for business ventures and other affairs next year and onward. Check out the below list of celebrities...
Senegalese-American musician and rapper Akon, outside of music, is known for his dedication to moving Africa into the age of cryptocurrency. Now, he’s looking to build his own self-named futuristic city powered by his accompanying cryptocurrency, Akoin. His pitch for the development plans, which will take about ten years, includes making the city the first LEED-certified project in Africa and tourism city co-developed by SAPCO, Archpaper reports . The futuristic “Akon City” is expected to have sculptural, interlocking towers, a large manmade lake, and promenade, in addition to residential and commercial areas built. According to Business Insider , Akon has hopes of transforming his native country and restoring power by introducing cryptocurrency and blockchain technology. Back in January, he announced that he finalized a deal to build 2,000-acre “Akon City,” which he also referenced as “Wakanda.” Just finalized the agreement for AKON CITY in Senegal. Looking forward to hosting you...
Yele Bademosi is dedicated to giving back to Africa. Now, with his new venture as CEO and founder of Bundle, the Nigerian born executive hopes to help unbanked citizens of Africa. Bundle is a social payments app similar to Venmo, Forbes reports . Prior to launching the financial platform last week, he quietly raised nearly half a million dollars back in September 2019 from Binance, Pave Investments, and other African investors. Bundle is one of six African startups Binance is funding to promote the use of cryptocurrency across the continent. “Regardless of your geography, you should have access to the best financial services. And unfortunately, your geography today defines the quality of financial services that you have,” Bademosi told Forbes. Users will be able to send, receive and spend bitcoin, Nigerian naira, and ether, as well as the parent company’s native exchange, Binance coin. After giving a passionate pitch about the change Binance could create in Africa, Bademosi became...
Rapper turned entrepreneur, Akon shared an official whitepaper where he explained the mechanisms and mission behind his new digital cryptocurrency, Akoin. Akoin is a block-chain powered cryptocurrency that aims to “unlock the potential of the world’s largest growing workforce by creating learning, earning, spending, and saving opportunities across Africa and other lean economies.” The Akoin Ecosystem of Decentralized Applications (DApps) and Applications (Apps) will allow users to convert prepaid mobile minutes, a commodity commonly used in Africa, and fiat currency into cryptocurrency thus making it possible for users to transition monetary ecosystems with ease. Akon explained that mobile minutes are a top trading tool in most African countries. “We have so many currencies in Africa – a lot of them are unstable, and most of them are untrusted. It got to the point where the day-to-day African people don’t even use the currencies anymore, they’re using their cell phone minutes and...