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27.01.2020 Business & Finance

MoMo Account: We Don’t Spend Decease Account; Monies Taken To Central Bank After Two Years Of Dormant -Telcos

By Deborah Agyei Amponsah
MoMo Account: We Dont Spend Decease Account; Monies Taken To Central Bank After Two Years Of Dormant -Telcos
27.01.2020 LISTEN

Scores of Ghanaians tend to live and keep their vital information’s personal without disclosing or giving a hint to friends or family.

The patronage for mobile money transaction has come to make sending and receiving money very convenient but because of the secret lifestyle, many do not share their pin.

Well, the bubbling question is that what about people who registered on MoMo and died, who don't have next of kins and did not share their pins with families. Where are their monies? What happens to them?

These are some of the mind-boggling questions that keep eating up many Ghanaians especially those that hold mobile money account.

Finding answers to this and many others, Peace News’ Reporter Deborah Agyei Amponsah spoke to Mr. Godwin Tamakloe, Senior Manager at the Anti-money Laundering, Compliance and Analytics Department of MTN in charge of Mobile Money, and he stated that the families of deceased are responsible to retrieve the money by going through the legal procedure in case they deceased didn’t share his or her pin code because telecom operators will not know when a customer passed way.

This explanation from the Senior Manager comes at a time people are raising questions as to what happens to the money of Mobile Money account holders who die without family members knowing the security pin to the account.

However, according to Mr. Godwin Tamakloe, such assertions are inaccurate since the laws governing the operation of Mobile Money service do not allow the companies to take ownership of the said funds.

He indicated that per the laws, all of the funds of deceased persons are sent to the Central Bank if the families do not initiate processes to retrieve those funds.

Outlining the requirements and documentation needed for the process to begin, he emphasized that it is the responsibility of the family of the deceased to follow up on the locked-up funds since the company will not know whether the customer is dead or otherwise.

He noted that letter of administration, death certificate of the deceased customer and photo ID of the person on the letter of administration are the documentation needed for the processes to begin.

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