In an effort to reunite rightful owners with their unclaimed assets valued at least Sh50 billion, the Unclaimed Financial Assets Authority (UFAA) has teamed with Huduma facilities around the nation.
Susan Wachira, the manager of the Thika Huduma Centre, stated that a UFAA desk had already been set up and noted that this would be yet another service to be added to the facility’s present 23 offerings.
“We are capitalizing on Huduma Kenya infrastructure to reach people at the grassroots level and we believe that this is a great opportunity to hasten the reunification process as the centres will act as a point of contact for people enquiring about the status of their lost and found assets,” said UFAA Managing Trustee John Mwangi.
Speaking at a reintegration campaign drive called “Claim Your Lost & Found Cash Karibu Nawe” in Thika Stadium, Mwangi said the group wants to encourage people to use the shortcode *361# or to visit their official website to check the status of any unclaimed financial assets listed in the UFAA database.
UFAA now has 1.2 billion units of unclaimed shares and Sh48.8 billion in cash in the form of unclaimed financial assets.
Additionally, the authority has been successful in reuniting 39.7 million shares and about Sh2 billion in assets with their legitimate owners.
“We hope that by the end of this campaign, at least three-quarters of these monies will be reunited with its rightful owners. It is crucial that these monies are ploughed back into the economy,” said Mwangi.
The campaign also aims to persuade holding institutions, including banks, Saccos, insurance companies, and others, to turn over and relinquish any unclaimed financial assets they may have in their control on behalf of owners.
Regarding this, Co-op bank, KCB group, Safaricom, and other organisations were also on hand to help locals who attended the ceremony retrieve what was properly theirs.
Since most people are ignorant of the Assets Authority, the nationwide campaign also serves as an awareness push to educate the public on it.
According to the existing UFAA structure, it takes 90 days from the moment a person files a claim against an asset until the Authority eventually delivers a ruling on the matter.
In order to enhance the claim settlement procedure, the Authority is also attempting to include technology.
They have also put in place the Unclaimed Financial Assets Management Systems (UFAMS), which permits online claim filing, tracking, and automated backend processing.
