The Supplementary Act A/SA.01/06/20 amending the protocol A/P1/6/82 on the establishment of an ECOWAS Brown Card relating to motor vehicle third-party liability insurance has been approved and signed by the Authority of Heads of States at the just-ended fifty-ninth ordinary session of the Authority of Heads of States and Government.
As per article 1 (2) of the supplementary protocol, the ECOWAS Brown card has been given the status of a specialized institution of the Community; which now makes it more important and compulsory travel document for all motorists within the sub-region.
Henceforth, the Scheme’s activity report will be fed into the report of the Council of Ministers for the attention of the Authority of the Heads of states and government. This is established in article 8 of the new Act.
Also, article 9 provides for a control and sanction regime to be established under the Scheme to defend and protect community citizens.
All these very important provisions were lacking in the original protocol. Indeed, this achievement will remain one of the greatest legacies of the current Secretary-General of the ECOWAS Brown Card Scheme, Mr Winfred Kwasi Dodzih – an astute Ghanaian insurance practitioner and diplomat.
It is important to recall that the objective of the ECOWAS Brown Card is to facilitate the free movement of people, goods and services within the ECOWAS member-states; thereby promoting the development of inter-regional trade and tourism among others. The Brown Card, which was inspired by the Green Card of Europe, was established in 1982 by the Authority of Heads of States of ECOWAS in Cotonou, Benin Republic.
