Ghanaian families are being quietly denied access to hundreds of millions of cedis sitting in dormant bank accounts belonging to deceased relatives, as banks ignore legal obligations to notify next of kin and the Bank of Ghana (BoG) fails to enforce compliance.
The warning comes from Richard Amarh, a lawyer and Executive Director of the Centre for Legitimacy and Rule of Law (CLROL), who described the situation as a systemic failure stripping vulnerable families of inheritance they are legally entitled to claim.
A Right to Information (RTI) request filed in October 2024 by the Institute for Liberty and Policy Innovation (ILAPI) confirmed that the BoG had received approximately GH₵167 million in cedis, around $12 million in US dollars, £2.5 million in British pounds and €2.3 million in euros from commercial banks across the country. Converted into cedis at the time, the total was close to GH₵400 million. Amarh warned the figure could now be higher.
“You cannot find something like this in Ghana,” Amarh said, contrasting Ghana’s situation with the state of Massachusetts in the United States, which operates a searchable government platform allowing residents to trace unclaimed funds belonging to deceased relatives.
Under Ghanaian law, an account becomes dormant after two years of inactivity. If a further three years pass without reactivation, the bank must transfer the funds to the BoG. Critically, banks are also required to contact the account holder’s next of kin before declaring any account dormant and to periodically publish dormant account details. Amarh said banks are largely ignoring both obligations, and even the few that publish details provide insufficient information to allow families to identify whether a listed account belongs to a relative.
The failure creates a legal trap. Court orders authorising families to administer a deceased person’s estate only cover assets they declare. If a family is unaware an account exists, they cannot declare it, and therefore cannot legally retrieve the funds. Eventually, those funds are absorbed into government revenue.
Amarh also identified a financial incentive driving non-compliance. During the five-year window before transfer to the BoG, dormant funds function as free capital that banks can deploy for lending or investment, with no obligation to account holders.
CLROL is demanding that the BoG mandate a dedicated, searchable national platform consolidating dormant account information from all banks. The organisation confirmed it will formally petition the BoG, the Attorney General and Parliament, and indicated it may escalate to the Presidency if action is not forthcoming.
