#Article (Archive)

New ECOWAS Brown Card operational in January 2015

Jul 31, 2014, 9:45 AM

Implementation of the new Brown Card for the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) would take off on January 1, 2015.

The Director-General of the Nigerian Insurers Association (NIA), Olorundare Thomas, on Tuesday told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos that the aim was to eradicate fake cards.

The card is a creation of the ECOWAS protocol to facilitate transportation within the West Africa sub-region.

It helps in claim payments by insurance companies to motorists involved in accidents.

“The sub-regional Secretariat in Lome, Togo, had standardised the operations of the scheme with the design of a new consensual card.

“ The secretariat is also designing an online claim management software that will reduce the time for claims processing,” Thomas said.

The director-general said that the need to review the protocol in line with current realities was among the challenges confronting the ECOWAS card scheme.

He said that the Nigerian national bureau had continued to face challenges of delay in payment of cross border claims management.

Thomas said that other challenges faced by the bureau, included issues with the police formation of some member countries to get motorists released on time.

According to him, this happens when accidents involves accidents with loss of life.

(NAN-EIN News)