The National Insurance Commission says it will soon launch a comprehensive electronic database to deal with the increasing number of fake insurance stickers in the system.

The database which will take effect in April 2020, will no longer have motorists paste their insurance stickers on their windscreens but the information will be put on an app that can be accessed whenever and wherever.

According to the NIC, the programme is already under testing and when complete, will enable security agencies and the general public to check on the spot the legitimacy of a vehicle’s motor insurance, by simply dialing a code. Motorists plus passengers will receive an alert once a genuine motor insurance policy is issued to them.

Speaking at a news conference in Accra, Deputy Commissioner of Insurance at the NIC, Michael Kofi Andoh said “this will to help motorists to check when their insurance policies have expired or when it will expire. The police can now check without scanning any tickets.”

“We have been collaborating with the police to try to monitor [and] to try to chase the criminals but most of the time we only arrest a small percentage of the criminals. This is an electronic database that will house all motor insurance policies issued. So if you don’t have yours in the database it means that you don’t have a policy,” he added.

Mr. Kofi Andoh further revealed that out of the 2.3 million vehicles registered in 2018; only one million were issued with genuine motor insurance stickers.

The NIC says it is collaborating with the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority, DVLA, and the police Motor Traffic and Transport Department (MTTD), to ensure that the system is run effectively.