Idris Elba is building an eco-city on an island in Sierra Leone

Idris Elba has a vision for the longer term and is hard at work on a brand new “smart eco-city” that he is building on an island in Sierra Leone.

The British-born actor stays committed to his role as a brand ambassador in his native Sierra Leone, where his father lives creation a city powered by the wind where people from all around the world can come to live, work, invest and play, CNN reports.

The investment is a part of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) Elba signed with the local government in 2019 to develop an economic hub on Sherbo Island in Sierra Leone.

The star teased the corporate’s development during her speech on the Investopia investment conference in Abu Dhabi. Seven years ago, after a conversation together with his business partner Siaka Stevens, the 2 began working on a project to extend tourism in the island’s 30-kilometer coastal area.

Given the island’s beachy terrain, blue waters and sea turtles, Elba decided to expand the project beyond tourism.

“First of all, it’s a beautiful little island off the coast of Sierra Leone. It’s about the same size as Chicago, with about 40,000 people in different regions of the island,” Elba said.

“Historically, Sherbro Island was the point of no return in the slave trade,” he added. “It was here that England had its capital, Sierra Leone [when it was a colony]in a town called Bonthe, which still exists today. And the relics of the city are still there: the road network, old houses, churches. This is an extremely historically rich part of Sierra Leone.”

Elba explained that given Sierra Leone’s economic status as “one of the poorest countries in the world”, investment is limited. This led him to make the investment an investment opportunity in itself.

“We had to understand how to develop investment opportunities around this beautiful island without destroying it, being aware of the climate and being aware that there is a youth culture throughout Africa, where the average age is around 20, that wants something,” he added. he shared.

Working with a team of experts, Elba has tasked himself with developing the island to offer it with recent opportunities and representation for West Africa. He is obsessed with the project, which he sees as his “retirement plan.”

star also stays a fierce advocate for the African Creative Arts Team and calls on the federal government to offer financial support to the growing industry.

“I shot nine films in Africa, nine or eight films. Every time I’m there, I see the opportunities increase, I see the quality of work increase, and I just want to contribute more,” Elba said.

Elba signed the memorandum of understanding in New York in 2019 as a part of his Sherbo Alliance Partners, which he co-founded with Stevens. His father is from Sierra Leone; Elba’s mother is of Ghanaian descent. In 2014 in Elba he worked with the British Secretary of State, Justin Greening to eradicate Ebola in West Africa.