The Unclaimed Financial Assets Authority (UFAA) is calling on owners of unclaimed financial assets like money and shares to come forward and claim their monies.
The authority now says that unclaimed assets currently lying idle in the coffers stand at Ksh.86 billion.
The money trickles in from holders such as Saccos, telcos like Safaricom, the banking sector, and the insurance industry. This usually happens after lying in dormant accounts for periods of time.
“The portfolio of the authority is currently at about Ksh.86 billion. And it’s a makeup of about Ksh.36 billion thereabout in cash, which has been remitted to the authority, and the others are in shares,” UFAA Acting CEO Caroline Chirchir said.
Every year, only about 2,000 Kenyans claim these assets. This translates to a low reunification rate of just about 7 to 8 per cent.
Developed countries like the U.S. see rates of over 40 per cent.
“One of the things that probably contributes to this is low awareness. Some members of the public did not even know about the authority. Again, some claimants or members of the public may find the amount remitted to us is of low value,” she stated.
However, Kenyans have also reported cases of poor service from the Unclaimed Financial Assets Authority, as well as long and tedious procedures.
“I suspect that my mother could have some unclaimed assets because my mother was a civil servant. She passed on around 10 years back, and I suspected that there were assets that we could not have traced at that particular time,” an Anaesthetist at the Ministry of Health, George Owira, said.
But despite skipping his lunch break to seek assistance at a sensitization drive by the UFAA currently underway at Uhuru Park, George left with nothing.
“The challenges that were there were network challenges. The system was a bit slow, so the names that I presented were not verified because of the challenge of the system,” he stated.
The authority, however, argues that should you have all the necessary documents, the claims should be processed within weeks.
“The original owner claims take about 15 to 20 days. We have improved from the 30 days we used to do before. For the other categories, who are the beneficiaries and probably the companies, there’s also a process where we have to work with an agent who has to give the power of attorney. That sometimes takes a bit of time, but we work within 90 days,” Ms Chirchir said.
With over 3 million entries of unclaimed financial assets, you are probably unknowingly owed by the government. The Unclaimed Financial Assets Authority is therefore asking Kenyans to check whether their money is part of the over Ksh.80 billion currently lying at the Central Bank.
