The Institute for Liberty and Policy Innovation has uncovered huge sums of money sitting in dormant accounts at the Bank of Ghana as supposed beneficiaries continue to wallow in poverty.
ILAPI uncovered this as part of its initiative to reduce inheritance poverty and improve human dignity after the death of benefactors.
In an attempt to find out the total amount of money accumulated in dormant accounts at the Central Bank between 2016 and 2023, ILAPI filed an Right To Information (RTI) request which revealed that over GH₵ 167.8 million, US$14.6 million, GBP 2.4 million, and EUR. 2.3 million have been accumulated during the period.
When the foreign currencies are converted using prevailing exchange rates, the total amount accumulated in about 1.5 million accounts is estimated to be around over half a billion Ghana Cedis.
The dormant accounts are bank accounts with no customer-initiated activity by the account holder or a third party on the account holder’s behalf for a period of two years. By law, banks with such accounts are obligated to transfer such funds to the Dormant Account Register.
It is the belief that the owners of these accounts have died either in road accidents, floods, and among others.
ILAPI says research it conducted last year revealed that while these large sums are with the Bank of Ghana, potential beneficiaries such as children, wives, families, etc. continue to struggle with poverty due to the challenges with claiming those funds.
“It is important to recall that some of these beneficiaries depended on their deceased relatives for education and economic survival. Therefore, their inability to access the funds denote they have to drop out of school and strive to survive on their own, which could push them into social vices and poverty,” portions of a statement copied to The High Street Journal read.
Among a number of demands to the BoG to address the situation, ILAPI is calling on the Bank of Ghana to amend its laws to enable it to take steps to identify beneficiaries and Next of Kins.
Moreover, the institute wants the Bank of Ghana to direct all banks to demand the Ghana Card of the next of kin at every account opening stage so that identification will be easier.
ILAPI says BoG must “go beyond its ongoing literacy campaigns and actively engage in identifying and contacting the beneficiaries and Next of Kin by amending its laws and policies” in addition to issuing “directives to all banks that the Ghana Card of the Next of kin during account opening should be requested to eschew identity crises and reduce the long timelines during the investigations on the dead.”
