The Secretary-General of the ECOWAS Brown Card Scheme, Winfred Dodzih has revealed that the first individual he contacted for advice when he was appointed the Permanent Secretary-General of the ECOWAS Brown Card Scheme was Mr. William Coker, the Chief Executive Officer / Secretary-General of WAICA for his expert counselling.
“I could say without any hesitation or thought that his expert counselling has carried me through and contributed to the great successes that the ECOWAS Brown Card Scheme has achieved in recent years,’’ Dodzih said.
He gave this hint whiles delivering a good will massage at the recent WAICA Annual General Meeting and Conference held in Accra. According to him WAICA is the only sub-regional body for the Insurance industry in the Anglophone West African Sub-Region. He emphasized the ECOWAS Brown Card Scheme has become the only Insurance Scheme in Africa comprising of three geopolitical zones namely; The Francophone, Anglophone and Lusophone zones.
He thanked the WAICA Secretariate for its contribution to the growth and development of the sub- region through the facilitation leading to the facilitation of free movement of people, goods and services across the member states which has led to the region’s success in economic and social integration which is underpinning bedrock of the ECOWAS Treaty.
Furthermore, he shared some brief information on the Brown Card Scheme which he considers as achievement which include the following: –
- The Brown Card has established National Bureau in the 14 ECOWAS Member States that are linked by road except Cape Verde.
- The Brown Card has established a common compensation regime known as the Harmonized Convention.
- The Brown Card has also established a secure certificate system to attest to and strengthen the security of the Card.
- The implementation of the automatic issuance of the Brown Card to all Motorist within the ECOWAS space
- The adoption of the inter-Bureau Agreement and some important Acts and Regulations including the recent supplementary Act AS01/06/20 in amendment of the protocol A/PI/5/82 thereby changing the status of the Brown Card Scheme into a specialized institution of ECOWAS.
- Needless to mention the relieve of pains and suffering of millions of innocent road accident victims who have benefited from the scheme’s road settlement process be it corporal, death or material losses.
More importantly he emphasized that the main objective for the establishment of the Brown Card is to facilitate free movement of people, goods and services within the ECOWAS Member States by providing third-party liability insurance cover for motorist within the region and thereby promote the needed economic and social integration of the region in support of the 1974 protocol of free movement.
He also revealed that henceforth with the adoption of the Supplementary ACT AS.SA/01/06/20 by the authority of Heads of States and Governments, the activities and operations of the Brown Card Scheme will be closely forward by the Heads of States of ECOWAS. Consequently, it is now required of the Secretary General to report quarterly on the activities of the Scheme to the authority in accordance with the provisions of Article 8 of the ACT.
Another important feature of the new ACT is the provision in Article 9 relating to the establishment of the Community of Authority for the regulation of the Brown Card which will be in close collaboration with WAICA to see to it that this all-important sub-regional regulatory body is established to enhance control and development of insurance in our sub regions.
