usaka, Friday, March 27, 2020: The Yellow Card Scheme (YCS) has committed US$ 3.6 million towards the acquisition of the proposed new headquarters of COMESA.

This is part of the US$33 million that the PTA-Reinsurance Company (Zep-Re) is selling its new state-of-the-art Business Park building in Lusaka suburb.

Both the Yellow Card and ZEP-Re are specialized agencies of COMESA with the former being a regional Third-Party Motor Vehicle Insurance Scheme. It provides legal liability cover and compensation for medical expenses resulting from road traffic accidents caused by motorists visiting countries in the Scheme.

The deal was reached during the 48th Meeting of the Management Committee of the Yellow Card Scheme, which was held on 23 – 25 March 2020 at the COMESA Secretariat through video conferencing.

The meeting agreed to recommend to the Council of Bureaux of the Yellow Card that the Project should acquire one floor of the Zep-Re Business Park building for US$ 3,666,667. The meeting noted that the COMESA Secretariat was already processing partial payment.

The two COMESA Assistant Secretaries Amb. Dr Kipyego Cheluget (Programmes) and Dr Dev Haman (Administration and Finance) attended the meeting.

Participants were drawn from Member National Bureaux from Burundi, D R Congo, Ethiopia, Malawi, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Staff from the COMESA Competition Commission, ZEP-Re and the COMESA Secretariat also attended the meeting.

Subsequent meetings, will also be conducted through video conferencing in the wake of COVID 19 pandemic

The Zep-Re building was opened in December 2019 by the Zambian President H.E Edgar Chagwa Lungu.