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BoU pays out Shs268.7m to 400 dormant mobile money claimants
What you need to know:
- Bank of Uganda is estimated to be holding more than Shs70b on dormant mobile money accounts.
Bank of Uganda paid out Shs268.7m to claimants of cash held in mobile money accounts for the three months to April.
The cash held in dormant mobile money accounts by Bank of Uganda, industry data indicates, is estimated to be in the excess of Shs70b.
In April, MTN alone transferred Shs42.7b to Bank of Uganda, which had been held in 9.35 million mobile money account between 2009 and 2022.
The telecom also indicated that of the Shs42.7b, at least Shs35b was held in 7.51 million mobile money accounts, accumulated between 2009 and 2021.
It was not immediately clear how much other payment service providers, among them Airtel have so far transferred to Bank of Uganda.
The Shs268.7m, Bank of Uganda noted on Tuesday in responses to emailed questions, which was paid against 400 mobile money accounts.
However, the Central Bank didn’t indicate whether the money had been claimed by the account holder or the legal representatives.
The National Payment Systems Act provides a procedure through which such money can be redeemed and guides on the procedures, which a telecom must fulfil before declaring a mobile money or electronic money account dormant, after which it is transferred to Bank of Uganda.
A mobile money or electronic money account, according to the National Payment Systems Act, is declared dormant after 450 days or 15 months of being inactive, after which the account and the money on it, is transferred to Bank of Uganda.
The Act was first implemented in May 2021, after Bank of Uganda issued two licences to MTN and Airtel, respectively under the National Payment Systems Act.
At least more than 40 service providers in the category of payment systems operators and electronic money transfer service providers have been licensed in the last two years.
The National Payment Systems Act effectively separated regulation of electronic and mobile money services from communications, which had for almost a decade, been regulated by Uganda Communications Commission.
Bank of Uganda acting director for communications Natamba Bazinzi on Wednesday told Monitor that the process to claim such money is originated by the mobile money issuer, which, before it is sent to Bank of Uganda for payment, has to verify the claim.
“The Central Bank shall refund any unclaimed balances to the account holder of mobile money or his or her legal representative in case the account holder is dead [if] a request [is] made within seven years from the time of transferring money to the central bank,” he said.
Government property
The National Payment Systems Act requires Bank of Uganda to hold money on dormant mobile money accounts for safe custody for at least seven years, before it is transferred to the Consolidated Fund, after which it becomes the property of government.
It is not clear whether such money can be claimed after it has been transferred to the Consolidated Fund.
