Nigeria Mortgage Refinance Company (NMRC) has partnered with HouseAfrica.io – a blockchain startup focusing on real estate, to develop a Blockchain-based digital land registry for authenticating property ownership and verifying the integrity of land titles.
The company made the announcement on Twitter ahead of its Virtual Abuja International Housing Show schedule to take place tomorrow.
2. To address these issues in Nigeria, NMRC has partnered @HouseAfrica1 to develop a blockchain-based digital land registry for authenticating property ownership and verifying the integrity of land titles.@CAHF_Africa @WorldBank @IFC_org
— NMRC (@NMRCNG) >
Land Registry, Another Major Use case for Blockchain in Africa
Land registry is touted as one of the major use cases of Blockchain in Africa. With the distribution ledger technology, the many challenges that come with land ownership can be greatly reduced.
Most times, when Blockchain-based land registry is explored, the most prevalent problem that comes into view is lack of proper documentation of land titles, a challenge flawed with corrupt practices, especially in places like Africa. This is evident in countries like Burkina Faso, which has one of the highest cases of land and housing insecurity.
To grasp the concept of land registry on the blockchain, let’s examine how the transfer of ownership of land is done.
When one intends to buy a property, he or she will first seek the lawful owner, negotiate, get the owner to agree to the purchase after which he will then sign the land title.
The whole process may look easier, but then when a property is not registered or recorded in the right way, it leaves open gaps which are vulnerable and could be exploited. In Nigeria, for instance, land settlements are already becoming an every day issue as the existing system of land registry is marred with irregularities such as forged signatories, defects in the documents, and other inefficiencies.
But with blockchain, cryptographic tools for authentication and authorization can be employed, using this, land deeds can be immutably recorded and verified. This eliminates the need for centralized administrators (humans as we know are the weakest link in the chain of security).
Nnamdi Uba, CEO of HouseAfrica.io, comments on the new partnership and how it opens up a whole new opportunity.
“The partnership will help to unlock trapped assets and capital in residential real estate valued at about 300-900billion USD. and then wealth creation through increased access to credit and growth in mortgage penetration by as much as 3% – 5% of GDP over a 5-10-year period (subject to increased adoption and user rates).” he said.
The partnership is another milestone for the Nigerian based blockchain startup whose big mission is to unlock trapped assets and capital in residential real estate.
About HouseAfrica
HouseAfrica.io is a real estate focused start-up headquartered in Nigeria, leveraging emerging technologies like Blockchain to make property transactions secured, transparent and affordable.
In 2019, the startup won the “Best African Blockchain Startup at the 2019” at the AfricArena Conference – Fantom Blockchain Challenge and was also amongst the elven startups selected for the AfriTech accelerator 2019 cohort.
