The Nigeria Incentive Based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending (NIRSAL) and the Nigerian Agricultural Insurance Corporation (NAIC) are partnering with PULA to accelerate growth of agricultural insurance in the country. PULA is an insurance and technology company which uses technology and data to provide farmers with protection and agronomy advice in order to protect them from risks and grow their income. Managing Director of NIRSAL, Mr. Aliyu Abdulhammed, said in Abuja that the partnership would protect farmers’ investment and encourage improved production. He said the partnership would also entail working with the insurance industry to develop new innovative insurance products that are flexible for farmers to repay loans. According to the NIRSAL MD, “One of the key objectives under the NIRSAL’s Insurance Facility Pillar, is to facilitate the development of new and innovative agriculture insurance products and significantly increase the uptake of agriculture insurance in Nigeria. “As a catalyst, NIRSAL in collaboration with both public and private sector and with the support of NAIC, has facilitated the development of an innovative index-based insurance product. “This new insurance product particularly the Area Yield Index Insurance protects not only the initial loan or the capital the farmer puts in, it also protects his potential cash flow,” he said. He said the aim of the insurance product was to lift farmers out of poverty, guarantee improved livelihood, food security and economic development.
Also, the Managing Director of NAIC, Mrs Folashade Joseph, said the corporation presently covered less than 2 per cent of all the farmers in Nigeria after over two decades of its operations. Mrs. Joseph, represented by Mr Bashir Martins, NAIC Deputy General Manager, Technical, said there was still a huge insurance market gap of 98 per cent. “The continuous effort of government to diversify the economy through agriculture, which is beginning to yield positive results, is expected to create an attractive market for investors.
“This will ultimately lead to more demand for agricultural insurance. “NAIC with over 1.3 million agricultural insurance policies issued over the years, is committed to continually improve on its product offerings in line with international best practices,’’ Joseph said. The Chief Executive Officer of PULA, Mrs Rose Goslinga, listed consumer mistrust, insurance cost structure inhibition and data challenges as major reasons insurance coverage had not reached many in the country. She said that PULA, with the support of NIRSAL, had invested heavily in data collection to price insurance products in order to understand what yields farmers were able to achieve in the country.
