Plans are said to be worked out by the Permanent Secretary General of the Council of Bureaux of the ECOWAS Brown Card Insurance Scheme, Winfred Kwasi Dodzih, and the head office towards digitalizing the motor insurance database in Liberia.
Dodzih said the digitalizing of ECOWAS Brown Card Insurance in Liberia is aimed at detecting fraud, increasing premium grants and indemnifying the victims.
According to him, the ECOWAS Brown Card Insurance is a mechanism instituted by ECOWAS to guarantee victims of traffic accidents to prompt and fair compensation for road accident victims.
Dodzih explained that the ECOWAS Brown Card Insurance allows free movement for citizens of member countries within the ECOWAS sub-region.
He made the disclosure when he paid a three-day working visit to Liberia last week as guest of the Secretariat of the ECOWAS Brown Card National Bureau of Liberia and conferred with Sahr A. Kaba, Secretary General of the bureau.
Dodzih voiced that his visit was meant to hold discussions with relevant key stakeholders for the digitalization of motor insurance database in the country.
While in Monrovia, Dodzih, led by Kaba, paid a courtesy call on the Commissioner of Insurance of Liberia at the Ministry of Transport and other stakeholders, andheld fruitful discussions on the need for the ECOWAS Brown Card Insurance to be digitized in Liberia.
He hinted newsmen that, during discussion with key stakeholders, including the Commissioner of Insurance of Liberia at the Ministry of Transport, he reminded them about a protocol signed by the Head of States and Government of the Economic Community of West African States towards the establishment of the ECOWAS Brown Card Scheme.
Of the seventeen (17) ECOWAS member countries, Dodzih pointed out that Liberia and Cape Verde are lagging behind in having the ECOWAS Brown Card Insurance digitalized, as it is the case with the other member nations, including Nigeria, Cote D’Ivoire, Ghana, Sierra Leone, Togo, Gambia and Mauritania, amongst others.
The Council of Bureaux ECOWAS Brown Card Insurance official, who is resident in Togo, disclosed that the formal launch of the digitalization of the motor insurance database system is due for June 2024 in Liberia,which he said will be preceded by a stakeholders’ meeting in Monrovia when plans and modalities are finalized.
He added that every citizen in the sub-region is being affected positively by the ECOWAS Brown Card, notingthat it is essential to digitalize the ECOWAS Brown Card Insurance in Liberia to identify fraud at the borders, increase premium growth for the insurance company, create jobs, boost Liberia’s economy and as well guarantee prompt and fair compensation for victims of traffic accidents.
Dodzih also noted that the chances of defrauding the ECOWAS Brown Card Insurance could be very limited when the system is fully digitalized.
For his part, the Permanent Secretary General of the ECOWAS Brown Card National Bureau of Liberia, Sahr A. Kaba, informed journalists during a joint media chat with him and his guest, Winfred Kwasi Dodzih, at his office in Monrovia that “We are embracing the digitalizing of motor insurance of the ECOWAS Brown Card Insurance to protect victims of traffic accidents and give them prompt and fair compensation for the damages caused by non-riding motorists travelling from other member states to their countries”.
Kaba explained that the digitalization of the ECOWAS Brown Card Insurance, if done by the government and key insurance actors, will further offer insurance services and products which will boost economic growth.