The Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) officials have lauded Rwandan cross-border transporters for embracing the yellow card scheme, noting that it has helped local logistics firms to reduce costs, and ease movement of goods and persons within the region.

Sindiso Ngwenya, the COMESA secretary general, said the number of subscribers under the scheme is growing annually, adding that the amount of claim compensations paid to road accident victims has also gone up.

“Through the yellow card scheme, COMESA has contributed to region’s competitiveness by reducing cross-border transport and transaction costs… It saves transporters and business community time and money,” he added.

This was in a speech read for him by COMESA’s Berhane Gidy during the group’s meeting on regional third party motor vehicle insurance in Kigali last week. The meeting attracted participants from all the 19 COMESA countries.

The yellow card scheme is a regional third party motor vehicle insurance scheme for medical expenses resulting from road traffic accidents caused by visiting motorists. It also offers emergency medical cover for the driver and passengers of foreign trucks involved in traffic accidents.

Speaking at the conference, Emmanuel Hategeka, the trade and industry ministry permanent secretary, said economic integration is essential to support the private sector, improve operations and ease cost of doing business. He added that COMESA has created a favourable legal, economic, political and social environment, “which opens up tremendous opportunities for business”.

Hategeka said major economic reforms have been implemented with the trade bloc, but called for more incentives to facilitate and attract more investments into the COMESA region. He argued that incentives are necessary to support the private sector as the engine of growth to hasten the pace of economic development in the region.

“I am happy to note that the insurance industry in the COMESA region has risen to the challenge and successfully implemented the third party motor vehicle insurance scheme,” he said. This scheme, which has been in operation for over 25 years, has significantly contributed to the facilitation of cross–border movement of vehicles, goods and persons within the region and hence fostering trade and investment.

Over 180 insurance companies are involved in the scheme and 200,000 motorists are using the card, enabling insurers to generate an annual premium income of $11 million.

“The yellow card scheme has made travelling across the border easier and has eliminated unnecessary delays at the border points and greatly contributed to the increase in intra-COMESA trade and tourism,” said Hategeka.

He said the government of Rwanda and other governments in the region are working to see COMESA, SADC (Southern Development Community) and East African Community (EAC) benefit of member countries in the tripartite region.

The lack of uniform systems inconveniencies cross-border transporters and increases the cost of doing business and, eventually, that of goods and services.

Hategeka said the implementation of the TFA should be expedited to remove such barriers to trade and allow transporters and travellers to move easily and economically within the tripartite area.

The proposed tripartite free trade area sets the stage for the creation of the single market of the 26 African countries in the eastern and southern African, with a combined population of 625 million people and a total GDP of over $1.2 trillion or about 58 per cent of Africa’s GDP.

COMESA is made up of Burundi, Djibouti, the DR Congo, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Rwanda, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Sudan, Egypt, Comoros, Seychelles, Swaziland, Mauritius, Eritrea, Libya and Madagascar. SADC is made up of 14 members, including Tanzania, Malawi, the DR Congo and Lesotho.