Mobile money has become an important factor in achievement of a cashless economy. Photo / File
The grief of losing a spouse or relative is compounded when a family is left to navigate a bureaucratic maze to access financial assets left behind.
Families of deceased holders of mobile money and bank accounts often struggle to access such assets or funds despite being listed as the next of kin. The family members frequently get frustrated by the stringent legal demands before accessing the funds. They are often required to provide or obtain letters of administration or court-issued probate.
A family experience
But this process can be costly and time-consuming as portrayed in the case of Ms Sarah Namuyomba, a widow. For Ms Namuyomba, her husband’s mobile money account had provided her with hope of sorting out the family’s expenses, including her young children’s school expenses. But despite knowing the funds were there, she says accessing them has proven an exhausting, frustrating, and long-drawn process.
“My husband passed away on January 10, 2025, and a week after his last funeral rites, I had to do a clean-up of his property in our home. I found a detailed account of his mobile money transactions in his personal diary."
"I learnt he had saved a substantial Shs2 million on his phone and could cover our children’s school requirements and even other demands such as rent before I could get back on my feet and embark on a single mother’s journey that awaited me,” Ms Namuyomba says.
Despite presenting her husband’s death certificate and her national Identification card, Ms Namuyomba was informed that without the legal backing of the letters of administration or a valid Will, she could not access the funds.
“I approached an MTN service centre with a death certificate and our traditional marriage certificate, hoping they would sort out everything. As a family, we had not started processing the letters of administration, which forced me into a deadlock. I was now unsure how to proceed,” she added.
Ms Namuyomba, who had assumed the process would be straightforward, was dismayed to learn that even after presenting the death certificate, her efforts were in vain without the legal backing of letters of administration of her husband’s estate.
Telecoms explain
Mr David Birungi, the Airtel network public relations and corporate communications manager, says if the mobile money account has remained dormant for 90 days, it is suspended and reassigned to another user, with the money on the MoMo account transferred to the Bank of Uganda.
“After 90 days of inactivity, the SIM card is sold to someone else as per the UCC regulation because it is on spectrum sharing. You just have a number... so you are either using it or giving up to someone else. Behind every SIM card, there’s a financial number, and if someone dies and leaves money on it, the money is transferred to the Bank of Uganda before being given out,” he says.
Mr Birungi explains that if the claim is made within 90 days, the funds can be retrieved by the mobile service provider with presentation of eligible documents to the rightful claimant.
“The procedure of the claim is made to us within 90 days, where one is required to present the letters of administration to indicate who manages the deceased’s estate, proof of identity, and a death certificate, then money is transferred to the claimant. In case of late declaration [after 90 days], we can help the client in reaching out to the Bank of Uganda with the same documents, “he adds.
Roles of next of kin
Ms Rhona Arinaitwe, the senior manager of corporate communications at MTN Uganda, echoes the importance of a Will and legal documentation held by claimants to avoid disputes over who should inherit a deceased person’s assets.
“The law does not recognise the next of kin; only the person with the letters of administration can claim the funds from either us or the BoU. If a person has not left a Will, it can complicate matters where the law intervenes and requires legal documentation to resolve the issue,” she says.
In a 2024 next of kin advisory publication by the Communications and Corporate Affairs Department of Uganda Bankers’ Association, a next of kin is stated as a null automatic beneficiary of a deceased person’s funds held in the bank, rather than upon certain legal requirements being met to a legally appointed administrator.
Retrieving money from banks
While many people associate hurdles to access mobile money accounts left behind by a deceased relative, a similar situation holds for banks.
Just like telecom companies require proof of legal authority before releasing a deceased person’s funds, banks also follow strict procedures. Mr Kenneth Agutamba, the head of communications at Stanbic Bank Uganda, says being listed as a next of kin does not automatically grant access to the money left behind.
Instead, family members must obtain Letters of Administration if there is no Will or Probate if a will exists through the court system. “Upon the death of an account holder, the administrators/executors are expected to obtain letters of administration or a grant of probate from the court allowing them to take over the estate of the deceased. The letters are then submitted to the bank together with the identification of the administrator(s).
The bank would then, upon verification of the letters at court, proceed to convert a deceased’s account into an estate account to allow the administrators access. This is on condition that there is no subsisting account in respect to the account in question,” Mr Kenneth Agutamba says, adding: “Per our laws and regulations, the next of kin has no automatic right to access the funds of a deceased, but rather can be the quickest means of communication to the bank.” He notes that in an account totalling five years of dormancy, the funds are transferred to the central bank as unclaimed balance, where legal heirs can still claim them. “ An account that is not operated for a period of two years and has been in the dormancy register for a period of three years is advertised in print media; five years from the date of advertisement, the unclaimed balances are transferred to the Bank of Uganda,” Mr Agutamba says.
Our countless efforts for a response from the Bank of Uganda through Mr Natamba Bazinzi, its deputy spokesperson, on the current standing amount of unclaimed money transferred from financial institutions to the Central Bank as of 2025, went unanswered by press time.
But Mr Ivan Bwowe, a legal expert, argues that the lack of public awareness and understanding of the procedures involved in claiming a deceased person’s assets is a major issue of family disputes that link a thick line to the fraudsters and opportunists.
“People need to understand that it is not enough to be the next of kin or the wife, but you need to have the legal authority to access the estate. That is why Wills and letters of administration are very important and ought to be sought by the right person,” he said.
Mr Bwowe explains that the significance of a next of kin is valid until the death of the person, where he or she is merely a reference point for communication.
What the law says
Section 57 of the National Payment Systems Act, 2020, states that an electronic money account that has no registered transactions for nine consecutive months is considered dormant. The electronic money issuer must notify the account holder at least one month before this period elapses. If the account remains inactive, it is blocked and, after an additional six months of inactivity, closed. Subsequently, any remaining balance is transferred to the Bank of Uganda.
The rightful claimant, such as a legal representative or administrator of the deceased’s estate, can request a refund from the Bank of Uganda within seven years of the transfer. After this period, unclaimed balances are moved to the Consolidated Fund. “To reclaim such funds, a legally recognised administrator or representative must apply within seven years.
If unclaimed, the money is moved to the Consolidated Fund. The process requires presenting a death certificate, proof of relationship, and court-issued Letters of Administration or Probate,” it reads in part.
Mr Henry Kuloba Wesaka, the assistant administrator general in the Office of the Administrator General, explains that letters of administration are a legal document issued by the court to confirm who is legally allowed to manage and distribute the deceased’s estate in the absence of a valid Will.
“In Uganda, only the person granted these letters can legally claim the assets, which include mobile money and bank savings. It becomes a criminal offence if you try to deal with a dead person’s property without letters of administration, and this can attract criminal sanctions,” Mr Kuloba says.
He adds that when an individual comes to the Administrator General’s office, the first step is opening a file after presenting a valid death certificate from the National Identification and Registration Authority (Nira) and proof of relationship.
After this, family meetings are held to appoint estate managers and give members information on all property holdings of the deceased. Mr Kuloba further notes: “When the family has agreed on the people to administer the estate, a certificate of no objection is given to them to be taken to court and there is no defined period for the procession since it largely depends on the nature of the family resolution.”
The Administration of Estates Act and Succession Act states that claimants must present valid proof of authority to access the deceased’s property, such as land, digital assets, including mobile money accounts, among others.
Unclaimed cash
Billions of money remain locked in bank and mobile money accounts of deceased Ugandans as families face uncertainty involving a protracted legal process of claiming it. Section 59 of the Financial Institutions Act, 2004, stipulates that if an account holder does not go back to the bank to claim this money, it is sent to the Bank of Uganda. In 2023, the Bank of Uganda revealed that it had accumulated an estimated Shs70b as cash from dormant mobile money accounts, where it had only paid out Shs268.7m, two years after it took over the regulation of mobile money platforms in Uganda.
