Ghana seems to be countering all recent controversial policies made by its west African neighbour, Nigeria. After giving a badge of approval on blockchain companies, and introducing a more progressive approach towards regulating crowdfunding, the bank has now rolled out a new policy on dormant accounts, aimed at protecting abandoned funds at Ghanaian banks. According to the bank, any account at a Ghanaian bank with no customer activity for a period of two years is a dormant account — three years for a fixed deposit account. After the respective periods of time, banks are then mandated to transfer all the dormant accounts to a register of dormant accounts to be kept by the banks.
“An account transferred to the register of dormant account shall not attract any service charge or account related fees. Interest bearing accounts transferred to the dormant account register shall also cease to accrue any interest,” the bank said in the new rules.
What Is Interesting About The New Policy?
One interesting arm of the new rules is that Bank of Ghana has instructed banks in Ghana to take adequate steps to contact an account holder at least three (3) months before the account becomes dormant. Those to be contacted include “ Next of Kin” of the customers.
Again, banks are mandated to publish in national newspapers, including digital print media, a list of all the accounts that have been on the register of dormant accounts for three years.
Where the account holder still fails to claim the funds in the dormant account, banks are then requested to transfer the dormant funds to Bank of Ghana. However, the funds can still be claimed back by the account holders or beneficiaries from the Bank of Ghana even after they have been lodged with the apex bank.
In any case, for all the time during which account remains dormant, Bank of Ghana says the funds in them are still covered by the Ghana Deposit Protection Scheme, a form of insurance protecting customers’ funds at licensed banks in Ghana.
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Nigeria Borrows From Dormant and Unclaimed Dividends Accounts
Bank of Ghana’s latest move comes on the heels of Nigeria’s Finance Act 2020, which allows Nigeria’s federal government, through its Debt Management Office (DMO), to move all such funds to a trust to be run by the office. Government can then borrow from the trust.
“If you have bank balances and unclaimed dividends that are not six years and above, this has no implication on you.
“If you have unclaimed dividends in a company, that is not a public limited one listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange, you have no issue. If you do, you can start the process of taking back your unclaimed dividends and if it is a bank balance, go and get your bank balances.
“All these will be done in consultation with the bankers’ committee, CBN and the banks for the unclaimed bank balances and unclaimed dividends, registrars, Securities and Exchange Commission, other regulatory bodies,” said Bode Oyetunde, Senior Special Assistant to Nigerian President on Finance and Fiscal Matters and Secretary of the committee.
The total amount of the unclaimed funds at Nigerian banks and custodians has been put at more than 180 billion naira ($472 million).
Charles Rapulu Udoh
Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based lawyer who has advised startups across Africa on issues such as startup funding (Venture Capital, Debt financing, private equity, angel investing etc), taxation, strategies, etc. He also has special focus on the protection of business or brands’ intellectual property rights ( such as trademark, patent or design) across Africa and other foreign jurisdictions.
He is well versed on issues of ESG (sustainability), media and entertainment law, corporate finance and governance.
He is also an award-winning writer
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