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The Council of Bureaux for the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Brown Card Insurance Scheme (EBCIS) must address the challenges facing the implementation of the scheme to further facilitate and enhance trade and movement of people in the sub-region, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey, has stated.
She mentioned fraud in the acquisition of the ECOWAS Brown Card Insurance Scheme certificate at the borders, fraud in the settlement of claims, delay in the settlement of claims, and inadequate funding for the national bureaus and lack of public awareness and education as some of the challenges.
The ECOWAS Brown Card Insurance Scheme was introduced 41 years ago to provide insurance coverage for vehicles travelling across the member states of ECOWAS and streamline the processes of obtaining car insurance for ECOWAS citizens travelling across the region.
Ms Botchwey, in a speech read on her behalf by her Deputy, Mavis Nkansah-Badu, at the 39 General Assembly of the ordinary session of the Council of Bureaus underway in Accra, said the aforementioned challenges had “hindered the smooth functioning of the scheme and had negatively impacted its effectiveness in facilitating seamless travel and trade within the ECOWAS Member States.”
The four-day conference, being organised by the ECOWAS Brown Card Insurance Scheme in collaboration with the National Insurance Commission, is on the theme “Positioning the ECOWAS Brown Card Insurance Scheme as a Specialised Institution/ Agency of the ECOWAS Commission for effective free movement and trade facilitation”.
She said the implementation of the ECOWAS Brown Card Insurance Scheme provided opportunity to enhance trade and free movement of goods and services across the region for the economic prosperity of the citizens of ECOWAS Member States.
“Notwithstanding these obstacles, the ECOWAS Brown Card Insurance Scheme has achieved noteworthy successes, such as the automatic issuance and digitalisation of the Scheme,” the Ministerstated.
She entreated participants to come out with suggestions to help improve the EBCIS, saying, “I am confident the discussions here would lead to concrete actions and strategies that would enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of the ECOWAS Brown Card Insurance Scheme.”
The Acting Commissioner of Insurance, Mr Michael K. Andoh, said efforts to enhance prompt compensation had been strengthened by some regulatory frameworks.
He said the advent of the automatic Brown Card issuance was facilitating the payment of cross border accident claims.
Mr Andoh entreated motor underwriting companies to honour their obligations with the same zeal, irrespective of where the claim originated.
The Chairman of the Ghana National Bureau of the ECOWAS Brown Card Insurance Scheme, Mr Henry Bukari, said the ECOWAS Brown Card Insurance Scheme presently stood “Today as a hallmark of regional integration, facilitating seamless trade and movement within West Africa”.
