Blockchain technology adaptation for land administration services: The importance of socio-cultural elements

The adoption of efficient technologies in support of land administration services is still a challenge in Ghana. Data on land ownership, use, and value in Ghana remain fragmented, and technological systems enabling information services automation, and accessibility to reliable land information remain inefficient. This continues to cause societal problems like; double sales of land, unauthorized changes to land documents, corruption, and bribery. In this study, we argue that the absence of a context-focused guide for technology adaptation is a major factor for failures in previous technology adoption attempts in Ghana's land sector. We evaluate how a past technology (GELIS) adoption at Accra Lands Commission in Ghana was executed and why it led to unrealized expectations. We relied on elicited expert views followed by content analysis, and validated against a meta-synthesis qualitative review methodology of secondary data. We then extrapolated these results to possible outcomes and trajectories for the adaptation of a new technology like blockchain. Based on blockchain's interdependent feature, Ghana's contextual land issues, and the GELIS adoption experience, we develop suggestions covering an extended TOE framework to include socio-cultural elements as a guide for blockchain technology adaptation in Ghana, and other developing land administration systems with similar land issues as Ghana. Policy implications underlining these suggestions are highlighted.