Kenya’s Unclaimed Financial Assets Authority (UFAA) is reminding companies that there is a  deadline of November 1 to surrender all unclaimed financial assets to the authority, and that failure to remit them will attract a penalty of 1% above prime rate per month per annum.

Earlier, there was a report that as at August 8.73 billion worth of assets had been surrounded, but that the UFAA was having difficulty finding the owners. 

An asset will be declared unclaimed where one or more of the following requirements are met:

• The records of the holder do not reflect the identity of the person entitled to the assets;
• The holder has not previously paid or delivered the assets to the apparent owner or other person entitled to the assets;
• The last known address of the apparent owner is in a country that does not provide by law for passage of property to the State where there is no owner or is not applicable to the assets and the holder is a permanent resident in Kenya.

Some unclaimed assets include items left in safe deposit boxes (after two years), unclaimed salary (after one year), ownership interest, dividends (3 years) and deposits after utilities (like Kenya Power after 2 years). Some unclaimed assets are created by red tape by stubborn custodians who have made it difficult for people or companies to rightfully claim their own assets.