UFAA has announced that that Sh450 has not been reclaimed.Photo/business dailyIn the latest filings, the Unclaimed Financial Assets Authority (UFAA) has reported that the Treasury has taken over nearly half a billion shillings in mobile money deposits, whose owners have not been found.
The Sh456 million from the three mobile phone operators was taken from accounts that had by June 30 remained inactive for more than two years.UFAA said The Cental Bank of Kenya has kept the amount, which in the Trust Fund account but does not, however, include unclaimed airtime.The Unclaimed Financial Assets Act requires the mobile phone operators Safaricom , Airtel and Telkom to look for the rightful owners of the assets first before surrendering them to the state.The money surrendered was in idle accounts of lost SIM cards that are yet to be replaced or those whose owners have left the country.Safaricom, had in February 2015 indicated it was holding about Sh500 million in idle M-Pesa accounts.The cash was to be given back to owners or beneficiaries upon proving the death of the owners and production of an administration letter granting them powers over the deceased’s estate.The unclaimed money transferred to UFAA by the three telecoms operators is part of the Sh8.3 billion the State had taken over by June 30.UFAA Said the Trust Fund account at the CBK also had Sh241.2 million in US dollars and Sh194.6 million in other foreign currencies.This brings the total value of unclaimed assets surrendered to the State in cash to Sh8.73 billion, barely unchanged from Sh8.7 billion in December and Sh5.8 billion in June 2016.Unclaimed assets include bank accounts that have been dormant for more than five years, bankers cheques not cashed for two years and contents in safe deposit boxes unclaimed for more than two years.Life insurance policies unclaimed for more than two years and shares whose dividends have not been collected for more than three years are also surrendered to UFAA under the same law.The latest UFAA report said listed companies could not trace the owners of 241.3 million shares valued at Sh16.42 billion at the end of June, a drop from Sh25 billion in 180 million shares in December 2016.UFAA usually invests the cash in Treasury bonds which offer fixed returns, eliminating the risk of deterioration of value as it waits for beneficiaries to lodge claims which are vetted before payment can be processed.