For all individuals in Kenya who have lost their own old M-Pesa lines or those of their relatives or have been unable to withdraw the funds from said old M-Pesa lines, will now have to do so through the Unclaimed Financial Assets Authority (UFAA).
This occurrence, is coming as a result of an announcement by Safaricom. The telecommunications giant via the announcement made it known that it will be handing over 200 million Kenyan Shillings to the Unclaimed Financial Assets Authority (UFAA).
According to The Nation the money, will be transferred as part of the telecommunications company’s current reconciliation of mobile wallets in Kenya.
Safaricom made it known that the process first began in June 2021 through it encouraging its users of M-Pesa to withdraw any money left in their old lines or money left in lines that belonged to their deceased loved ones.
Part of the statement by Safaricom reads, “At the start of the exercise back in June, we had KSh 266 million in unclaimed assets, some of which had already been claimed once we notified customers.”
The deadline for withdrawing said money, was Tuesday that 31st of August 2021. Safaricom will now create a list of the deceased customers including those whose next of kins have not yet reached out.
As at the time of putting this article together the telecommunications giant was still in the process of putting together the names along with the amount of the unclaimed funds.
According to the statement by Safaricom, “In instances where funds for such persons have already been submitted to the Unclaimed Financial Assets Authority, they can then lodge the process with the authority.”
In the past Safaricom users could simply claim said funds by dialing *405#. The process however, will now be significantly more complicated as soon as the Unclaimed Financial Assets Authority (UFAA) takes charge.
According to Safaricom’s policy on M-Shwari and M-Pesa the balance should remain in the account of the deceased until said balance has been claimed.
Users can only claim the amount if he or she is the Executor of the will or the personal representative.
The documents that are required from the Next of Kins, also depend on the circumstances surrounding the death of the users.
In a situation where an M-Pesa user dies and has written a will, his or her Next of Kin will be required to present Safaricom with copies of the Grant of Probate, ID of the Next of Kin, and the Death Certificate.
If an M-Pesa user dies without a will, the Next of Kin will then be required to present Letters of Administration.
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