As the Christmas festivities approach, the Director-General of the Motor Traffic and Transport Department (MTTD) of the Ghana Police Service, COP Francis Ebenezer Doku has commended the management of the National Insurance Commission (NIC) for its resolve in undertaking training and sensitisation initiatives across all categories of persons in the country.

The MTTD Boss made these remarks during the launch of a 3-day orientation and training programme for some 100 National Service Personnel who were posted to the MTTD under the Urban Traffic Management module for their 2022/2023 service year. This module was instituted in 2015 to complement the efforts of the Police MTTD and also to engage in sensitizing and educating the public on road safety issues.

”The keen interest and commitment shown by the National Insurance Commission (NIC) for these orientation programmes will make participants educated on basic insurance processes and the novel Motor Insurance Database (MID)."

This, COP Doku noted will help check fake insurance stickers on our roads.

The participants are expected to create awareness of insurance in the country.

“This programme is geared towards adding human resource to the MTTD for the effective management of road traffic. It is my expectation that NSS personnel will better appreciate the police-citizen relationship and also get rid of the negative stereotype they have about the police service”, he added.

The training programmes for the security agencies’ personnel, especially, have the broad objective of creating insurance awareness and providing an avenue to develop an interest in a career in insurance.

On his part, Ghana’s Commissioner of Insurance, Dr Justice Ofori, lauded the collaborative efforts of citizens, the Police MTTD and Commission in the reduction of road carnage across the country.

According to him, available statistics from the Police MTTD show that motor accidents and crashes for the first five months [January to May] 2022 stood at 6,472 representing a 4.67% reduction from last year’s figure of 6,789.

In terms of reported cases relating to injuries, the NIC Commissioner indicated [based on the MTTD statistics] that the figure declined by 4.98 within the same review period from 6,967 to 6,620 while death-related accidents declined by 9 percent from 1,250 people in January to May 2021 to 1,140 during the same period in 2022.

“Though as a country we wish to do better to reduce the carnage on our roads, there is clear manifestation to suggest that training modules of this nature have contributed immensely to this feat.”

Dr. Justice Ofori made these remarks in a speech read on his behalf by Mawuli Zogbenu, Head of Public Relations of the insurance regulator during the opening ceremony of the NSP MTTD orientation programme.

The Insurance Commissioner added that “ensuring sanity and protection on our roads are legally and mandatorily provided by two functions; the Police and insurance and our collaborative efforts are so far yielding the necessary results.”

The 3-day orientation programme is facilitated by the Ghana Insurance College (GIC), which is the Insurance Industry’s professional insurance training College in Ghana.

The NIC’s objectives and functions per Sections 2 and 3 of the Insurance Act 2021, (Act 1061), include supporting and encouraging financial inclusion, promoting public awareness and undertaking public education on insurance. This orientation programme for NSP’s is therefore one of priority to the NIC. The programmes will continue to centre on the basic principles of insurance and the MID which is of utmost relevance to these personnel deployed to our roads especially as the Christmas festivities fast approach