Nigerian startup HouseAfrica has developed Africa’s first blockchain-based land and property registry, reducing the time it takes banks, lawyers and other stakeholders to query and register land titles.
Formed in May 2018 to tackle problems around land ownership that lead to duplicate land titles and illegal sales, as well as low access to mortgages, HouseAfrica provides an immutable ledger alongside a visual map reference, ensuring the integrity of land titles and increasing access to credit.
The startup, which took part in last year’s Startupbootcamp AfriTech accelerator in Cape Town and was also one of the winners at AfricArena, has partnered the Nigerian Mortgage Refinancing Company to give it the opportunity to exclusively service 100,000 land titles across six states, will soon expand across the whole of Nigeria.
Co-founder Uba Nnamdi said HouseAfrica had big ambitions.
“Our solution is very scalable because most African, Asian and Latin American countries have the same issues,” he said.
“First we are looking at expanding to other African countries, like Ghana, Kanya, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania, and Angola.”
Designed to be easy to use via a slick web app, HouseAfrica’s business model is based on fees for land title validations and commission on mortgage payments. Self-funded until now, the startup is looking to raise a US$350,000 angel round by the end of January to grow its team and continue onboarding properties.
