- Law is intended to protect money of depositors
- Small withdrawals and deposits matter
- People have a right to leave their money untouched
Image: Kevin Ajuna
Permanent secretary in the finance ministry and secretary to the treasury Ramathan Ggoobi has said that government has no intention to steal people’s savings.
His remarks come amid widespread concerns among the public that there was a plan by the state to take unclaimed savings from dormant accounts.
Social media has also been awash with claims that the government is taking over the money in such accounts which has led to an uproar.
The entire legal frame work beginning with Financial Institutions Management Act 2004,The MDI Act 2003 and the latest one, the National Payments and Systems Act are intended to protect the money of depositors.
At least 10.9 million mobile money accounts are inactive, according to Bank of Uganda.
In details contained in the Bank of Uganda Annual Supervision Report for the period ended December 2020, the Central Bank noted that the mobile money sector had recorded 30.7 million subscribers during the period with a substantial number of these not conducting a single transaction in at least three months.
Ggoobi said that there was a gap that was discovered in the law that whenever banks have someone’s money and they do not come back to claim for it due to unforeseen circumstances such as accidents and its only that person aware of the account ,the question was that where does that money go?
He added that there is mechanism to enable the owner or relative claim for it.
Image: Courtesy Photo
‘For banking it is up to two years beyond which the money is transferred to the Central Bank for safe custody for 8 years but after the commercial bank or financial institution has announced publicly about the presence of such an account’.
‘If still there is nobody who has claimed it in 10 years, the money is moved to the consolidated fund where government has the responsibility to refund the money to the owner or claimant if they emerge. So the purpose of the law is to protect people money and not to steal it.’
Speaking shortly after appearing on the Capital Gang talk show, he said the challenge was in misinformation where a legislator blamed people as if they are the problem, that why would they leave money on an account and not use it which is not the primary intention of the law.
‘The intent of government is to find out whether the person is still alive and so there is need for Ugandans to have some life on their accounts to at least prove that they are still alive with either a small withdrawal or deposit ’he said.