Ecowas Brown Card Insurance Scheme educates stakeholders in Tema

The Ghana National Bureau of Ecowas Brown Card Insurance Scheme has held a seminar for its stakeholders in Tema on reinforcing understanding of participants about the Ecowas Brown Card Insurance Scheme with the aim of acquainting them with the new secure brown card.

The seminar, which was held at the Ghana Institute of Freight Forwarders Conference Room, Tema, brought together various stakeholders from the Ghana Police Service, Chamber of Commerce, Tema Post, GIFF, CEPS, Niger Shippers Council, Transit Ghana limited and claims managers of member companies.

The C.E.O/General Secretary of the Ghana Ecowas Brown Card Insurance Scheme, Mr. Gabriel Glover said “The Scheme allows the free movement of people and goods within the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas). The card provides compensation to victims of motor vehicle accidents, which may occur while travelling within the sub-region. It also provides insurance cover for third-party liability risks relating to accidents resulting in death and or bodily injury and property damage”.

The brown card insurance scheme was established by protocol A/P1/5/82 of the Ecowas Commission and signed by heads of state of member countries on 29 May 1982 in Cotonou, Benin, in cognizance of the fact that no regional integration is viable unless some security guarantees are provided for the road users.

The scheme was established for an automatic cover and the settlement of claims arising from cross-border road traffic.

“The brown card is the most successful initiative of the sub-region and it is also said to be one of the most successful instruments of integrating Ecowas. The new brown card would certainly help in strengthening, fast-tracking and simplifying the process for claims settlements. The new brown card was introduced because the old card was easily forgeable, as many instances of fake cards were discovered in the region. This necessitated the introduction of the new card with improved security features. The new card has security features embedded in it which are not visible but to the naked eye”, the CEO concluded.

The participants at the seminar lauded the Ghana National Bureau for the initiative to educate them on the Ecowas Brown Card and prayed for the success of the scheme.