About 78,000 vehicles have been insured in the country as February 17, this year, Commissioner of National Insurance Commission (NIC), Justice Ofori has said.
He disclosed this when the Greater Accra Regional Executives of the Ghana Private Road Transport Union (GPRTU) of the Trades Union Congress (TUC), paid a courtesy call on the management of the NIC.
He stressed that the feat was achieved through the implementation Motor Insurance Database (MID).
The visit afforded the Greater Accra Regional Executives to learn about the MID and its implementation.
The MID implemented by the NIC in January this year, is a centralised system from which security agencies and the general public, including passengers of vehicles can check the validity of a vehicle insurance instantly through mobile phone or quick response code.
Mr Ofori explained that the MID became necessary to check the menace of fake insurance stickers, indicating that there were more than two million vehicles in the country which did not have insurance.
The Insurance Commissioner said in the past some insurance companies were undervaluing vehicles and competed on prices of insurance rather than on service and thus making it difficult for some of them to pay genuine claims promptly.
“Huge claims arising out of total accidents involving commercial vehicles had been a major headache for many insurance companies as they were not liquid enough to honour claims promptly resulting from the lower- than-regulated premiums they had charged in the past,” he said.
Mr Ofori said the public lost confidence in the insurance industry due to the inability of insurance companies to pay claims promptly, saying it was against this backdrop that the NIC introduced the MID.
He expressed the hope that the implementation of the MID would put insurance companies in a better position to pay genuine claims promptly to the most protection of policy holders and third parties.
The Commissioner of Insurance responding to the Greater Accra Regional GPRTU officers’ concerns about the increases in insurance premiums said there had not been increases in insurance premiums.
Mr Ofori explained that insurance companies were now complying and charging the right regulated premiums through the MID.
The Chairman of the Greater Accra GPRTU, Emmanuel Nii Ankrah, who led the delegation, pledged his office support to the implementation of the MID and said his office would educate its members on the MID.
By KINGSLEY ASARE
