This archive report was first published on 31 July 2020.
On July 31, 2020, the Unclaimed Financial Assets Authority (UFAA) issued a warning to the owners of over 800 million shares, giving them until the end of August to claim their assets or risk losing them to the State.
The shares, worth Sh26 billion, have been surrendered to the Treasury as idle assets after several companies reported them unclaimed.
Most of the assets, now in the custody of the UFAA, have been surrendered by public listed firms, insurance companies, banks, pension schemes, legal firms, telecoms operators, and saccos, among others.
The UFAA attributes many unclaimed assets to the fact that their owners did not inform the beneficiaries before they died.
However, the law requires the companies to search for the rightful owner of an asset before declaring it unclaimed and forwarding it to the UFAA.
Some of the shareholders mentioned are prominent people in society and public officers still in service who can be accessed easily.
It is essential that companies play their role by identifying owners before taking this drastic measure.
The State also has a role to play in educating the public and creating awareness on how to claim the funds.
