The National Insurance Commission, Ghana’s Insurance sector regulator has disclosed that their outfit has already issued over five hundred thousand (500,000) motor insurance stickers through their newly introduced Motor Insurance Database, MID.
According to the Commission, with time, the Motor Insurance Database will help in the elimination of issues surrounding fake insurance stickers.
While speaking in an interview on the success chalked by the Commission, the Head of Supervision at the NIC, Seth Eshun, revealed that although over a 1.5 million cars are issued roadworthy certificates each year by the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority, DVLA, only a fraction of that number has motor insurance; a situation which the MID is hoping to correct.
“Almost 1.5 million cars are given roadworthy certificates. But over the last three to four years, the number of cars that are actually insured by the industry is 0.8 million, and so one of the main reasons why we brought in the Motor Insurance Database is to get a system where the difference between cars with roadworthy licenses and cars that have insurance is basically negligible.
“Currently, we have half a million so, everything been equal we expect something around the region of a million. So, that means there’s still scope for us to improve. The key things that we seek to do are to collaborate a lot more with DVLA and we believe that if we collaborate with DVLA and the police, then we can ensure that the cars on the roads are insured,” he said.
Earlier this year, the Commission supervised the arrest of several persons involved in the issuance of fake motor insurance stickers. The arrest included a 72-year-old insurance Agent, Nana Kodua Marfoh who submitted fake documents to the Kumasi Area Office of the National Insurance Commission (NIC).
Additionally, two agents of Millennium Insurance Company Limited have faced arrest for possessing fake Allianz Insurance sticker booklets at the premises of the same Kumasi DVLA.
About the Motor Insurance Database
On January 1, 2020, the Motor Insurance Database was implemented. The primary purpose for its introduction sought to provide a centralized system from which security agencies and the general public including passengers of vehicles can check the validity of vehicle insurance immediately without stress.
The new system allowed for checks to be done through the use of a mobile phone, receipt of acknowledgement of transaction via a text message or by scanning a QR code on the insurance sticker by the Police Motor Traffic & Transport Department (MTTD).
Again, by simply dialing a code, the system enables the police and other interested entities to check right on the spot, the legitimacy of a vehicle’s motor insurance.
According to statistics from the NIC, it showed that out of 2.3 million vehicles that were registered in 2018; only one million of them possessed genuine motor insurance stickers.
