Ripple had announced a partnership with the Colombian Ministry of Information Technology and Communications two weeks before Gustavo petro was sworn in as the newly elected president. However, the project seems to be stalling after the new administration said it was not among its top priorities.
A report published by Forbes on August 30 said that the interim director of the National Lands Agency, Juan Manuel Noruega Martinez, had revealed that the project was not part of the government’s strategic priorities this year. Ripple’s tokenization of property titles in Colombia was not one of the projects listed in the Strategic Plan for Information Technologies.
The change in the decision is surprising, given that the new president of Colombia has elicited a positive sentiment regarding the crypto sector. He has previously published tweets showing his support for the cryptocurrency industry.
The partnership between Ripple and the Colombian government
The partnership involved Ripple, the Colombian National Land Agency, and Peersyst Technology, a software development company. The partnership planned to tokenize real estate on the Ripple network to streamline various processes, such as property searches and property title management while boosting transparency and efficiency in finance and payments.
In 2016, Colombia signed a peace agreement with a directive to formalize property titles for small and medium rural properties in Colombia. A 2013 report found that only one in three farmers in Colombia had formalized their land rights.
The lack of formality in the Colombian property sector has deterred farmers from investing in lands and prevents lands from being used as collateral when applying for loans. This issue was solved through a blockchain ledger that would give property owners security and offer incentives to invest in properties.
The Colombian land registry was created on July 1 after a year of being under development. Peersyst tweeted on July 30 that the first deed was added to the ledger, where the land certificate would appear like any other but also involve a QR code that verifies the certificate on the blockchain.
The QR code on the certificate can be used by people looking to find the location of the property deed on the Ripple blockchain. There have been no additional details regarding this project. Additionally, Ripple has not provided more details on the partnership’s progress.
