We chat to Uba Nnamdi Chukwuebuka, CEO of HouseAfrica, to find out about the blockchain-based platform...
HouseAfrica is a blockchain-based platform that aims at democratising the housing market in Africa. The main benefit is that HouseAfrica makes it easy for anyone to own a house.
HouseAfrica started on 27 May 2018, as an idea. Our enthusiasm for blockchain technology made our idea a reality.
My co-founder’s father was building four two-bedroom flats which he never finished due to a slow down in the business. At that point in time, his money had been tied down on the land and selling that land became very difficult.
We provide Property Tokenization. What this means is that we split properties into shares, recorded as digital units on a blockchain, thereby empowering previously disadvantaged investors to own property.
In the future, we will be adding a mortgage payment to the platform, as well as a blockchain-based Land Registry benefit.
Property investment comes with trust, so in order to build that trust and confidence, we partnered with a trustee company STL Trustees to manage and hold property titles for the investors.
Consistency is key.
We have achieved a lot. Our biggest achievement has been getting selected for the Startupbootcamp AfriTech 2019 cohort. It opened our mind to understand what building a startup is really like. It is not just about building an application, but about how to solve a critical pain point using that app.
The future of entrepreneurship looks extremely bright because the barrier to entry has been lowered to a laptop and an internet connection. However, it is going to be competitive as well, due to the same reasons.
The importance of startup accelerator or incubator programmes is the support and mentorship they offer. These two aspects help the founders understand their market on a deeper level and gain better insight about what their customers really want. I call it the practical MBA.
Entrepreneurs need support and mentorship.
When you are starting out as an entrepreneur, most people don’t take you seriously. Most people don’t see you as someone doing something meaningful. I had a couple of people advising me to look for steady work, but our zeal for problem-solving keeps us going.
I believe the learnings you gain are invaluable. You will learn how to do things differently and solve the world’s problems with innovation.
In the next five years, HouseAfrica would have become a global competitor for property acquisition, using our blockchain-based land registry to build a large real estate ecosystem.