By Juliet Nalwooga
The government has assured Ugandans that the Central bank has no intention of taking over or even taxing unclaimed balances in Bank accounts or Mobile money accounts.
The assurance has been made by Finance minister Matia Kasaija while addressing journalists at the media center today.
His clarification comes amid uproar by Ugandans who have accused the government of wanting to take over idle cash on dormant bank accounts under the National Payment System Act.
However, Kasaija has told journalists that the financial system was designed to protect owners of money and that provisions in the Financial Institutions Act (FIA) 2004 direct for a refund of all unclaimed balances to the rightful depositor.
According to the FIA act, after two years of inactivity on bank account, a Supervised Financial Institution transfers the account on a register and a notice is sent to the depositor in writing.
After it has been on the register for three years, the bank then advertises the dormant accounts in print media, and the balance is then transferred to the consolidated fund at Bank of Uganda after another five years.
According to a Bank of Uganda Annual Supervision Report for the period ending December 2020 at least 10.9 million, mobile money accounts were inactive.
A Mobile Money account is declared inactive after nine months.
