Unclaimed cash, shares and dividends surrendered to a State agency have crossed the Sh50 billion mark as investors including tycoons show disinterest in reclaiming the idle assets.
Unclaimed Financial Assets Authority (Ufaa) on Monday revealed the idle assets stood at Sh51.4 billion in December, up from Sh43 billion in June, reflecting a growth of 19 per cent.
Many Kenyans, said the authority, remain disinterested in pursuing funds legally belonging to them or their families.
Billionaire business owners, former powerful government officials and prominent politicians are on the long list of individuals whose shares worth Sh31.9 billion have been surrendered to the Treasury, up from Sh26.3 billion in June and Sh16.42 in 2017.
The authority reckons it had received Sh19.9 billion cash in local and foreign currencies up from Sh16.7 billion in June.
Surrendered safe boxes that are believed to contain jewellery, title deeds, share certificates and Treasury bills rose to 1,953 units from 1,592 in June.
The money is largely held by insurance companies, banks, pension schemes, legal firms, mobile phone money wallets and saccos, among others.
So far, the authority has received 6,000 claims and reunited shares and cash worth Sh1 billion with beneficiaries, representing 1.9 per cent of the unclaimed assets.
Unclaimed assets include money in bank accounts that have been dormant for more than five years, bankers cheques not cashed and contents in safe deposit boxes unclaimed for more than two years.
Reporting and surrender of unclaimed financial assets by all holders is mandatory and is due on or before November 1 every year. Holders are encouraged to file nil returns if applicable.
The law allows the Ufaa to charge any entity that fails to surrender unclaimed assets a penalty of 25 per cent of the assets held.Besides, the authority levies a penalty of between Sh7,000 and Sh50,000 for each day that the assets stayed before being submitted.The law requires the holding company to search for the rightful owners of an asset before declaring it unclaimed and forwarding it to the Ufaa.A Business Daily review of the authority’s public database found a long list of prominent Kenyans whose funds have helped swell the fund.Top among them is former Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka whose fortune was picked from Standard Chartered Bank #ticker:SCBK, KCB #ticker:KCB and Co-operative Bank #ticker:COOP.Bungoma Senator Moses Wetang’ula is at risk of losing his NCBA #ticker:NCBA, Housing Finance #ticker: HFCK, East Africa Cables #ticker:CABL, East African Breweries Limited #ticker:EABL shares and unknown assets in […]