Ghana’s dormant accounts problem is emerging as a wider test of the country’s inheritance and financial-inclusion framework, with nearly GH¢500 million in unclaimed balances raising questions about how efficiently families can recover wealth left behind by deceased relatives.
The Institute for Liberty and Policy Innovation, or ILAPI, has called for reforms to simplify beneficiary access to dormant financial assets, arguing that procedural barriers can turn accumulated savings into what it describes as “inheritance poverty”.
The headline figure is an approximate cedi equivalent rather than a single domestic-currency balance. ILAPI says Bank of Ghana data show that between 2016 and 2024, more than GH¢167.8 million, US$14.6 million, £2.4 million and €2.3 million in dormant balances were transferred to the central bank. It also says 1,448,660 dormant accounts were transferred between 2021 and July 2024.
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The scale matters because dormant funds are not simply an accounting category. Behind the balances may be savings accumulated over years of work that beneficiaries are unable, or sometimes unaware, that they are entitled to claim.
Under Ghana’s banking rules, accounts that remain inactive for five years are transferred to the Bank of Ghana, where dormant account holders or their legal representatives can trace unclaimed funds through the central bank’s portal. The framework is intended to protect customer funds while establishing a process through which they can subsequently be reclaimed.
But accessing funds after an account holder dies can be more complicated than many families expect. The Bank of Ghana has clarified that a person named as “next of kin” does not automatically inherit money in a deceased customer’s account. Access generally requires legal authority through probate where there is a will or letters of administration where a person dies intestate.
That distinction helps explain why the process can become difficult for families that lack estate planning, documentation or access to legal assistance.
ILAPI’s policy advocacy says nearly 70% of beneficiaries who attempted to recover dormant assets abandoned the process, while families can face significant costs and delays in establishing entitlement. One assessment cited by the institute estimates claimants can spend around GH¢7,500 and wait more than 32 weeks to access a deceased relative’s funds.
For lower-income households, those frictions can have consequences far beyond banking.
A dormant account may represent school fees, working capital for a small business, medical expenses, housing finance or savings intended to protect children and spouses after the death of a breadwinner. When access is delayed or abandoned, wealth that could strengthen a household balance sheet remains economically stranded.
The problem therefore exposes a less discussed dimension of financial inclusion. Ghana has made progress in encouraging citizens to use formal financial services, digital payments and regulated savings channels. But inclusion is incomplete if it is easier to enter the financial system than to transfer legitimately accumulated wealth when an account holder dies. GhanaEconomy News
Higher-income households are more likely to have wills, lawyers and formal estate plans, and can absorb the costs associated with probate. Families with fewer resources are less likely to have those advantages, meaning the same inheritance system can impose very different economic costs.
ILAPI has consequently proposed a Next of Kin and Beneficiary Access Act that would harmonise procedures across banks, insurers, pension administrators and other financial institutions. It also wants a National Beneficiary Claims Portal, standardised documentation requirements and mandatory notification of known beneficiaries when accounts become dormant or institutions become aware of an account holder’s death.
The proposal would not eliminate the need to verify legal entitlement. Nor should it.
Any reform would have to protect estates against fraud, impersonation, family disputes and unauthorised withdrawals. The objective should be to make legitimate claims predictable and efficient without weakening safeguards around private property.
Norvan Reports