Insurance
officials in West Africa and the Council of Bureaux of the Ecowas Brown Card
Insurance Scheme are to adopt a new Consensus Brown Card to replace the
existing one which will be used by all countries of the sub-regional economic
bloc.
The
new card is to be adopted during an April 23-25 first zonal meeting this year
of the Council and 6th extra-ordinary general assembly in Banjul, The
Gambia. At least 70 senior insurance
officials are attending the meeting hosted by the Gambia National Bureau of the
Ecowas Brown Card.
“[The
meeting is expected to] arrive at firm resolutions and decisions [about the new
brown card and settlement] that would be acceptable by all,”says Ebou L.
Bittaye chairperson of the Gambia National Bureau.
Bittaye
explains the meeting will discuss pertinent issues relating to the Consensus
Brown Card and claims settlement under the scheme.
Insurance
technocrats say “the Ecowas Brown Card Insurance Scheme is the most successful
tool for integration within the sub-region as it facilitates the safe movement
of peoples and goods in West Africa.”
Basiru Njai,
a first deputy governor of the Central Bank of The Gambia (CBG), says the
Scheme is meant to create a common system for settlement claims arising in
international motor traffic and harmonization of laws governing liability to
third parties in respect of motor vehicle accidents in Ecowas states.
“The
scheme also serves as a facilitator of trade and tourism in the sub-region of
300 million people with a fast growing middle class, in addition to providing
compensations to victims of road accidents across member states,” Njai
says.
He
says the importance of the scheme would be magnified by the expected increase
in trade and road traffic, following the implementation of the common external
tariff in West Africa in 2015.
Ecowas
Brown Card Insurance Scheme is a compulsory insurance cover for victims of road
traffic accident involving vehicles traveling across the West African
sub-region. It covers death, medical expenses, bodily injury and material
damage.
Soriba Cisse,
chairperson of the Ecowas Council of Bureaux, explains that the Scheme was
established by a Protocol signed by Ecowas heads of state in Cotonou, Benin in
May 1982.
He
says its objective are to enhance the free movement of road users and foster a
real regional integration, and to guarantee a fair and prompt compensation to
the victims of road accidents for losses suffered by visiting motorists
travelling from other Ecowas member countries.
Organizers
say the Banjul meeting will also adopt the report of the ad hoc committee whose
remit include: to review the founding text of the Brown Card Scheme, including
the protocols governing its institutional existence, and to review the
mechanism of claims settlement, and suggest new ways to facilitate claims
payment.
Written by Modou S. Joof
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