Money in a forgotten Ghanaian bank account is not lost. Under the Bank of Ghana’s Unclaimed Balances and Dormant Accounts Directive (2021) it moves in stages, and it can be claimed back at every one of them.

What happens to an account you stop using

  1. Dormant. A current or savings account becomes dormant after 2 years with no transaction you started yourself - interest and charges do not count. A fixed deposit counts from when it matured. The bank must try to contact you at least 3 months before.
  2. On the register. The balance moves to the bank’s dormant account register. You can no longer use the account until it is reactivated.
  3. To the Bank of Ghana. After 3 years on the register, and after the bank has advertised it, the balance is transferred to the Bank of Ghana, which holds it for you under section 143 of the Banks and Specialised Deposit-Taking Institutions Act, 2016 (Act 930).

The Bank of Ghana has said plainly that people with dormant accounts do not lose their money when it is moved.

Getting it back

Go to the bank where the account was, whichever stage it has reached. Every banking hall must display how to reclaim; if the money has gone to the Bank of Ghana, the bank validates your claim and pursues it with the Bank of Ghana for you, and the money is paid into an account in your name at that bank.

Bring:

Update your phone number and address while you are there; out-of-date details are how accounts go dormant unnoticed.

A relative’s account

If the account holder has died, the money is claimed by their legal representative: the administrator or executor named in letters of administration or probate. Bring the death certificate and those letters to the bank.

— Inheritance when there is no will — Death certificates

Keeping an account alive

Make a small deposit or withdrawal of your own at least once a year, or close accounts you no longer want. If the bank will not help, complain to it in writing and then to the Bank of Ghana.

— Complaining about a bank — Types of bank account