Safaricom surrenders Shs15b unclaimed mobile money cash

A Safaricom customer care centre. The telecom giant is handing over the money in compliance with the unclaimed assets law. COURTESY PHOTO

What you need to know:

Source. The money is from idle M-Pesa deposits held on phone lines.

Nairobi. Telecoms operator Safaricom is set to hand over Sh500 million (about Shs15.6 billion) to the Unclaimed Financial Assets Authority in a move that will push the agency’s total cash holdings to KSh2 billion (about Shs62.6 billion) barely a year since it was established.
Safaricom said the money is from idle deposits in its popular mobile money platform M-Pesa held in phone lines that have been inactive for more than two years.
“M-Pesa deposits are about KSh500 million (about Shs15.6 billion)but we are still computing airtime balances and uncollected share dividends,” said Safaricom chief executive Bob Collymore.
The list of contributors to Safaricom’s unclaimed assets cash pile includes money left in lost phone lines that have not been replaced and those belonging to people who have left the country.
Safaricom is handing over the money in compliance with the unclaimed assets law which requires companies, banks and utility agencies to surrender any assets that have been lying idle in their possession for periods defined by the law.
The law requires such companies to look for bona fide owners of the assets or rightful successors in cases where the owners are deceased.
But for companies like Safaricom, the sheer number of assets they are dealing with has made it difficult to launch an effective search for the asset owners through conventional means such as publication of the names in local newspapers.
The M-Pesa money has, for instance, accumulated in small amounts left in millions of accounts with the telecoms firm.
Safaricom said dependants of deceased persons can still claim the funds if they provide proof of death and an administration letter granting them powers over the deceased’s estate.
Upon receiving the money, the authority is expected to launch a fresh search for owners of the assets or their heirs where they are deceased.
The Unclaimed Financial Assets Act mentions mobile money but the authority said it was relying on powers accorded to the Cabinet secretary to include new asset classes not covered in the law.

Other companies
The Unclaimed Financial Assets Authority has received KSh1.5 billion (about Shs46 billion) worth of unclaimed assets from 19 banks, East African Breweries, Nation Media Group, Deloitte and Kenya National Assurance among others.