The National Insurance Commission (NIC) and the Motor Transport and Traffic Department (MTTD) of the Ghana Police Service is set to begin an aggressive campaign to clamp down on vehicles with fake and invalid insurance policy stickers in the country, Deputy Commissioner of the NIC, Kofi Andoh, has said.
According to Mr. Andoh, there are many vehicles – commercial and private – which ply the roads without any form of motor insurance, whilst others which appear to be covered have fake or invalid policy stickers.
“Both the vehicle owner, who doesn’t have an insurance policy and the one with a fake or invalid insurance policy are violating the law. Some have deliberately bought insurance policies from middlemen which they know are fake.
Using an insurance policy that is fake or invalid puts the life of the driver, passengers, and pedestrians in serious danger. This is so because in the event of an accident, there will not be any form of insurance cover for either the driver, passenger or pedestrian who has suffered some form of injury or loss,” he explained.
He disclosed this to the B&FT in an interview during a Training of Trainers workshop organised by the Commission for personnel of the MTTD in Sagnerigu in the Northern region.
The workshop was held to train the MTTD officers from the Upper West, Upper East, North East, Northern, and Savannah regions on the use of some newly introduced mobile devices which will aid in checking the authenticity and validity of the motor insurance policy.
Mr. Andoh explained that after the training, the MTTD personnel are expected to return to their respective regions to train their colleagues on how to use the devices, as they are currently being deployed nationwide to all MTTD regional and district commands.
“What the introduction of the mobile devices by the NIC also means is that the MTTD officers will depend solely on what is immediately visible. With the aid of the mobile device, they can scan the insurance policy sticker and within a minute or some seconds, a message will pop up indicating whether the insurance is valid or otherwise,” Mr. Andoh indicated.
The Deputy Commissioner of the NIC admonished motorists to buy authentic insurance policies from recognised insurance companies in order not to fall foul of the law.
To determine the authenticity of any insurance policy, he said, “Right after purchasing one, you will receive an SMS on your mobile phone telling you you have purchased an insurance policy from the company A or B and it will expire on such date.
Once you do not get such an SMS, you need to go back to the company you purchased your policy from and challenge them. Alternatively, especially for persons traveling on commercial vehicles, dial *920*57# and insert the vehicle’s registration number, it will tell you whether the vehicle is insured or not,” he stated.
On his part, Director of Operations at the MTTD, Supt. Dr Samuel Sosu Mensah, commended NIC for the equipment and the initiative saying with the introduction of this digital device, the work of the officers of the MTTD would become much easier when it comes to accident-related investigations.
This, he said, is because all mobile phones are linked to a national digital platform which creates an opportunity for data collection and analyses by all the stakeholders involved in ensuring road safety and traffic law enforcement in the country.
