Insurance Association of Malawi partners RTOA on yellow card scheme
The Insurance Association of Malawi through the National Bureau of Malawi has partnered with the Road Transporters Operators Association (RTOA) to administer the Yellow Card Insurance Scheme, a regional third party motor vehicle insurance scheme.
The two organizations signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in Blantyre on Tuesday where RTOA will be selling Yellow Cards to its members to enable easy facilitation of movement of vehicles, goods and people in the COMESA region including the East Africa community.
RTOA president Abdul Hai Lambat signed on behalf of his organization while Donbell Mandala, Vice President of Insurance Association of Malawi signed on behalf of National Bureau of Malawi.
Lambat hailed the agreement saying it will help their members in moving goods and making insurance claims easily when travelling in the COMESA and East Africa region.
“We are delighted to sign the MoU. Most of our members were having difficulties in the borders but we know that with this yellow card insurance, it will facilitate easy movement,” said Patel.
On his part, Mandala said the main objective of the yellow card insurance scheme is to provide minimum guarantee for road accident victims and fair and prompt compensation for damage or injury they may have sustained as a result of road traffic accidents caused by a visiting motorist thereby facilitating easy movement of vehicles between member states.
“This is a big milestone for us. Our expertise will assist in claims settled in other countries,” said Mandala.
According to the MoU, RTOA will have a designated office within their secretariat with an insurance officer provided and paid by the Bureau, solely for the purposes of selling yellow cards on behalf of the Bureau to members of the Road Transporters Association of Malawi.
RTOA as an agent will collect premiums from all persons or transporters who shall collect a yellow card or yellow cards from the agent as a form of insurance for cross border travel and transportation.
Mandala said some of the benefits of the yellow card are that delays and inconveniences are removed, thereby reducing the cost of transport and that insurance costs are also reduced as a motorist can travel from Malawi to Sudan or from Djibouti to Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) with a single card, making cost of insurance inexpensive.
“More than 200,000 motorists use Yellow Cards and there are 165 Insurance companies participating with approximately US $10 million annual income. More than 500 claims are settled annually,” said Mandala.
He said currently the countries which the scheme covers are Burundi, Rwanda, DRC, Sudan, Djibouti, Tanzania, Eritrea, Uganda, Ethiopia, Zambia, Kenya, Zimbabwe and Malawi.
Mandala said the Insurance Association of Malawi is encouraging all Malawian citizens and business people traveling outside Malawi in vehicles to neighbouring countries to purchase yellow cards from their local insurers.
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