The Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Finance, Mr Ramathan Goobi, has assured Ugandans in the Diaspora that the Government of Uganda has no intention of taking over or even taxing unclaimed balances in bank accounts or mobile money accounts.
According to Goobi, the existing legal framework is meant to protect remittance of cash from abroad and not to stifle it.
“The legal framework which manages the financial system was designed to protect owners of money; rumours that money is needed by Uganda to pay its debt is false,” he said.
“The Government of Uganda is among the few Sub-Saharan Africa Countries with a sustainable debt portfolio. I encourage Ugandans in the diaspora to come and invest at home and take advantage of available opportunities,” he added.
Goobi, who is also the Secretary to the Treasury, made the remarks while addressing members of Uganda North American Association (UNAA), an association of Ugandans in the Diaspora, during a virtual meeting on Monday, 20 September 2021.
This follows media reports that the government plans to take depositors idle cash on dormant Bank Accounts under the National Payment Systems Act.
The move has also prompted the Uganda Bankers Association (UBA) to issue a statement, describing the media report as misleading and works contrary to the efforts being made towards driving financial inclusion.
According to UBA, the National Payment Systems Act 2020 is a key piece of legislation in Uganda, which among others, regulates payment systems, provides for safe, and efficiency of payment systems, regulates the issuance of electronic money and regulates payment service providers.
“In this Act, under Section 57, Sub Section (1), it is stated that an electron, money account that does not have a registered transaction for nine (9) consecutive months will be considered dormant. This account could be a mobile money account or a bank account,” UBA explained.
They explained that the same Act further highlights additional procedures that are then followed before unclaimed funds are finally reallocated to a consolidated fund.
The act explains that the electronic money issuer shall within five working days after blocking of the electronic money account, give notice to the customer that the electronic money account is blocked and provide instructions on the process of reactivation o/the account.
For bank accounts, the period for declaration of dormancy is two (2 years) and the period for declaration of assets as unclaimed after dormancy (PoDAU) is eight (8) years, meaning a customer has up to 10 years to reclaim their balances after dormancy.
“As a sector, we believe that the enactment of the National Payments Systems Act, 2020 will bring about more positive changes in the payment space and therefore call upon bank customers and the general public to disregard the sentiments portrayed in the media reports referred to above,” they explained.