Unclaimed Financial Assets Authority (UFAA) has appointed John Kihara Mwangi as the Chief Executive Officer, replacing Kellen Kariuki who resigned at the end of last year.
Prior to his appointment, he was the manager, Unclaimed Financial Assets Line at UFAA.
Mwangi has had a successful career in several financial institutions within investment and commercial banking.
He joins UFAA at a time when the agency reports that the government and private sector entities are holding about Sh241.1 billion belonging to 477,112 Kenyans that has remained unclaimed for years.
The study, commissioned by UFAA attributes the huge numbers to lack of transparent accounting regulations which make it mandatory for public and private entities to declare unclaimed funds in audit reports thus creating the difficulty to trace such property.
The survey further stated that the less spoken about vault for unclaimed assets is pension schemes, with unsurrendered money estimated at Sh69 billion, followed by banks at Sh68.6 billion.
The survey called for improved national support for ufaa’s role thus forcing private and public entities holding unclaimed cash to declare and surrender money on October 30 every year.
