In a world scarred by recurrent corruption scandals, a technology that is likely to revolutionize holds promise.
According to stakeholders, at the World Block Chain summit which was held in Nairobi, the technology behind bitcoin, is likely to create fool proof digital land registries.
Niyi Ayoola-Daniels Founder of Juris Law from Nigeria believes that block chain would help by making all land records publicly available online and eliminating multiple titles for the same piece of land.
According to Daniels it eliminates opportunities for falsification and the risks associated with having a single point of failure in the management of data.
“Block chain also helps overcome the data silos in traditional bureaucracies in which public entities are reluctant to share information among themselves,” he said
He added that the technology can document clear ownership and transfer footprints, weeding out cases of fraud
Daniels said that countries like Ghana which have frequent cases of fraud and distrust at many levels have made efforts towards eliminating them through block chain.
In Kenya, the government is working on a blockchain database aimed at weeding out fake title deeds from the land registry.
ICT Cabinet Secretary Joe Mucheru said that single source of truth (SSOT),the database will be the primary reference for all land transactions would ride on blockchain technology, or a distributed ledger which allows for all transactions to have some kind of ‘public witnesses’.