ECOWAS: Vehicle Owners To Obtain ECOWAS Brown Card Effective June 1

With effect from June 1, 2016 all vehicle owners in Ghana will have to obtain an ECOWAS Brown Card insurance certificate to ensure prompt and fair compensation to victims of motor accident caused by non-citizen motorists from other ECOWAS member states. Until the current directive, the ECOWAS Brown Card Insurance Certificate was one of the required documents for vehicle being taken out of Ghana. It is a third-party liability insurance cover issued to vehicles driving from their country to any ECOWAS member country.

“But this will change from June 1, 2016. Every vehicle insured by a company in Ghana must obtain an ECOWAS brown card insurance certificate,” said Mr Gabriel Glover, the Chief Executive Officer of the ECOWAS Brown Card Insurance Scheme, in an interview during the first zonal meeting and training seminar for members of the ECOWAS brown card scheme.

The seminar, organised by the Council of Bureau of the ECOWAS Brown Card Scheme, was on the theme “trans-border claims management”. The ECOWAS Brown Card scheme was introduced in 1982 following the signing of the ECOWAS Brown Card Protocol by the ECOWAS heads of state to facilitate the free movement of goods and services.

Mr Glover explained that the certificate covered third party liability for injury, death and property damage caused by visiting motorists from other ECOWAS member states. He said the main objective of the scheme was to ensure prompt and fair compensation to victims of motor accidents caused by non-citizen motorists visiting their territory from other ECOWAS member states.

Explaining the claims procedure, he said the certificates were issued to motorists through their insurers. “In case of an accident involving a visiting vehicle, the accident is reported to the National Bureau after which the bureau would contact the police to get the vehicle released if no criminal offence is committed, and then settle the liability risks,” he said.

Already, he said, the system had been introduced in Ghana as motorists from July 1, 2015 had been paying the ECOWAS liability risk cover as part of their insurance premiums “but what is new is that we are now going to issue certificates to the insured”.