1 Comment
Ambassador Alie Bangura, Chairman of the ECOWAS Brown Card, disclosed that only 8% of vehicles in Sierra Leone are insured. This alarming statistic emerged during a pivotal partnership ceremony between the Sierra Leone Insurance Association (SLIA) and Afrimoney, highlighting an urgent need for reform.
This disclosure follows a Zonal meeting in Conakry, where Mr. Kwasi Winfred Dodzih, the ECOWAS Brown Card Secretariat’s Permanent Secretary, expressed similar concerns. Ambassador Bangura painted a dire picture of the situation. Despite the launch of a motor insurance database five months ago, only a small fraction of vehicles are insured.
Drawing on data from the Sierra Leone Road Safety Authority (SLRSA), which estimates that there are between 200,000 to 250,000 vehicles on the country’s roads, Ambassador Bangura emphasized the severity of the issue. “This is a national issue,” he declared, pointing out the vast discrepancy between insured and uninsured vehicles.
Since the database’s inception in December 2023, only 8,163 vehicles have been insured, a starkly low number compared to the total vehicles in operation. Ambassador Bangura expressed his concern, noting instances where vehicle owners who had insured their vehicles this year found their details absent in the database. This was discovered through a verification process by dialing *9292# on Orange or Africell networks.
He urged vehicle owners to adopt the new digital system for insurance, highlighting its convenience and efficiency. Nonetheless, he cautioned against fraudulent activities, echoing warnings from the Commissioner of the Sierra Leone Insurance Commission (SLICOM).
The digital motor insurance database aims to improve the insurance industry’s efficiency and streamline premium payments for vehicle owners. This marks a significant advancement in Sierra Leone’s insurance landscape, offering a promising solution to the current insurance shortfall.
The partnership between SLIA and Afrimoney underscores the urgent need for action to bridge the gap between insured and uninsured vehicles. As the nation moves towards a more digitized and efficient insurance system, the emphasis on transparency and adherence to regulations remains paramount to safeguarding the interests of all road users.
This same insurance company are really failing there majority of the partner. Because in most cases these bigger insurance company are not answering to their own security sides of the majority of agreement made between them and their costomer that is why they are not answering to their call of duty to join there businesses.
So for me I suggest that they also need to respond towards the accouzation of not taking care of their promised made between them and that of their subjects by all means.so it right before it’s great.