The ECOWAS Brown Card Insurance Scheme has urged Ghanaian motorists to always collect their Brown Card certificate when buying motor insurance, as it marked its 44th anniversary this week.
The appeal came during this year’s ECOWAS Brown Card Day, where industry stakeholders stressed the scheme’s role in protecting road users and easing the movement of people and goods across West Africa.
The Chairman of the Ghana National Bureau, Fred Saka, said leaders of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) established the scheme on May 29, 1982, in Cotonou, Benin, to deepen regional integration and support cross border trade. Its purpose, he explained, is to guarantee prompt and fair compensation to victims of accidents caused by non-resident motorists travelling within member states. The card functions as a common third-party cover against death, injury or property damage caused by visiting drivers.
Saka said the Ghana National Bureau, set up in 1987, coordinates cross-border claims and issues the cards through licensed insurers. He pointed to its work with the National Insurance Commission (NIC) to fold the Brown Card into Ghana’s Motor Insurance Database (MID), a step that has digitised the certificates and made coverage easier to verify.
His main concern was awareness. Many motorists, he said, do not realise the Brown Card is already built into their premium and so never ask for it. “It is paid for in your motor premium,” he said, urging policyholders to insist on the certificate whether they buy comprehensive or third-party cover.
The 44th anniversary is being observed at the same time by national bureaux across ECOWAS states, with stakeholders framing the card as a vital tool for compensating accident victims as cross-border travel and trade keep rising.
