The Unclaimed Financial Assets Authority (UFAA) and Huduma Kenya are looking scale up its unification drive into four new counties in phase two of the initiative.
The first reunification drive that targeted the counties of Nakuru, Nyeri, and Thika in the month of July saw at least 3,088 Kenyans get reunited with their ‘lost and found’ monies.
According to a communication from the firms’, the second phase of the campaign will begin in Eldoret County and target three other counties, Murang’a, Kirinyaga, and Embu, in the coming weeks.
In the plan the Unclaimed Financial Assets Authority (UFAA) had announced a target to reunite unclaimed assets worth at least Ksh 20 billion to rightful owners using Huduma Centre outlets across the country.
The first phase of the reunification drive in partnership with Huduma Kenya targeted three counties of Nakuru, Nyeri and Kiambu.
The exercise, themed Claim Your ‘Lost and Found’ Cash Karibu Nawe, aims to encourage members of the public to check unclaimed financial assets that could have been surrendered to the Authority in their name and are now sitting in UFAA’s database.
UFAA CEO John Mwangi, said the partnership with Huduma Kenya for the grassroots clinics is bearing fruit, going by the increase in the number of claimants coming forward.
“UFAA will progressively roll out the reunification drive to other counties to ensure all Kenyans have been reunited with their unclaimed financial assets,” said Mwangi.
The Authority currently holds unclaimed financial assets comprising Sh31 billion in cash and 1.2 billion units of unclaimed shares.
The authority says it has also reunited about Sh2 billion and 39.7 million units of shares with rightful beneficiaries.
This initiative also aims to encourage holding institutions (those in possession of a financial asset on behalf of an owner, such as banks, insurance companies, or saccos) to submit and surrender unclaimed financial assets in their possession to avoid penalties and sanctions.
UFAA will use the public engagement platform to educate and inform Kenyans on the importance of claiming their abandoned assets.
For three days beginning November 15, UFAA and other government agencies under the umbrella of Huduma Centre will pitch camp at Central Primary in Eldoret County to offer reunification services. The drive will later traverse the counties of Murang’a, Kirinyaga, and Embu.