About 507,000 motor insurance stickers have been electronically issued since the introduction of the Motor Insurance Database (MID) policy, the National Insurance Commission (NIC) has said.

This follows an earlier 272,000 stickers issued electronically in May of this year following the implementation of the MID in January 2020 to curb fake insurance stickers plying the roads.

According to the Head of Supervision at the NIC, the regulator on a daily basis, pays some GH¢1.6 million in claims for motor insurance in Ghana.

Speaking in an interview with GhanaWeb, Seth Eshun said; “Currently, we have over 507,000 electronically issued stickers so far and with everything been equal, we expect something around the region of a million by the end of this year. So, that means there’s still scope for us to improve. The key things that we seek to do is to collaborate a lot more with Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority (DLVA) and we believe that if we collaborate with them and the police, then we can ensure that most vehicles on the roads are insured”

Eshun adds though the DVLA issues some 1.5 million cars annually with roadworthy certificates, only 0.8 million of vehicles have been issued adequate motor insurance.

“Almost 1.5 million cars are given road worthy 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 (MID) is to get a system where the difference between cars with road worthy licenses and cars that have insurance is basically negligible,” he added.

On January 20, 2020 the NIC issued a directive to all insurance companies to cancel the issuance of manual stickers until they signed up to the new Motor Insurance Database. (MID)

The move by the commission was to get rid of fake motor insurance stickers that were plying the roads and to ensure the safety of lives and property.

Commissioner for Insurance, Justice Yaw Ofori, had earlier disclosed that insurance companies in the country are losing approximately GH¢390 million of gross revenue annually to fraudsters who issue fake insurance stickers to unsuspecting vehicle owners.