By Samsideen Ceesay
The Executive Secretary of the National Bureau for Ecowas Brown Card Scheme in The Gambia, Mr Saihou Samba has said that the Scheme provides insurance coverage for Third Party Liability risks relating to accidents resulting in deaths, bodily injury and property damage by providing compensation to victims of motor vehicle accidents which occur while travelling within the sub-region.
He made this exhortation during a nation-wide sensitisation targeting the border officials, governors and the business community on the relevant protocols and other regional programmes that are implemented by ECOWAS and other stakeholders.
He intimated that the ECOWAS heads of state and government on the 29th May 1982 in Cotonou, Benin, signed a protocol to establish the ECOWAS Brown Card Insurance Scheme. The Scheme is one of the very first protocols to be implemented by ECOWAS since its birth as a regional body in 1975.
Accordingly, the Scheme was derived from the Protocol on Free Movement of Goods and Persons across Territorial Boundaries in the West African sub-region.
“The main objective of the Scheme is to ensure prompt and fair compensation to victims of motor accidents caused by non-citizen motorists visiting their territory from other ECOWAS member states. Hence, the system guarantees a motor insurance cover which leads to the realisation of the free movement objectives of the ECOWAS,” Mr Samba affirmed.
He further explained that the Brown Card is essentially a territorial extension of the local motor third-party liability insurance cover, implying that the Brown Card motor certificate cannot stand alone or should not be issued in isolation of an underlying local motor third-party liability insurance cover or policy.
“The malpractice of not obtaining Brown Card from the right source has considerably reduced currently with the introduction of the automatic issuance of the Brown Card to all motorists taking the motor insurance policy,” the Executive Secretary observed.