REGIC advances to deepen knowledge on agriculture insurance in Nigeria
Royal Exchange General Insurance Company (REGIC), one of Nigeria’s leading insurance companies offering general and special risks protection policies recently held a series of Agriculture Insurance webinars, aimed at increasing the general awareness and perception of agriculture insurance in Nigeria.
It also targeted at seeing how good agriculture insurance practice can impact positively on the business of farmers, agro processors, agropreneurs and other stakeholders in the agrobusiness value chain in Nigeria.
A four-part webinar series anchored by Chukwuma Kalu, head, Agribusiness and Business Development, REGIC, looked at the various aspects of the agriculture industry in Nigeria and the role(s) insurance plays in developing and deepening access to financial services to operators in the agriculture sector.
The first in the webinar series was titled “How Farmers Can Leverage on Agriculture Insurance to Derisk Their Business during Covid19 Pandemic Times” and papers were presented by Kalu and Royal Exchange’s Agric Insurance technical consultant, Agrotosh Mookeej, a fellow of the Institute of Actuaries, UK and MD, Risk Shield Consulting Actuary, Zimbabwe.
The second edition looked at Agriculture Insurance being a key driver of inclusive finance for farmers, agribusiness SMES and agroprocessors in Nigeria, explaining in detail, the concept of inclusive finance to farmers and the role of insurance in supporting farming operations. The second webinar also looked into aspects of crowd-funding requirements in raising capital for farming in Nigeria.
The third webinar took a deep-dive into the Ginger value-chain and explained how
Weather Index Insurance (WII) can be used to protect businesses and livelihoods. This was held in conjunction with the GIZ Nigerian Competitiveness Project (NICOP), a partnership between the German Government, the European Union and the Federal Government. Yakubupaiko, Adviser, Access to Finance and Investment, GIZ NICOP, joined the team of Messerskalu and Agrotosh to explain the concept and product design of Weather Index Insurance (WII) to farmers, farmer cooperatives and other agriculture stakeholders.
The fourth and last in the series, to herald the start of the planting season, focused on using Agriculture Insurance to digitize farming operations and featured Agritask (REGIC’S technology partners, based in Tel Aviv, Israel) as well as representatives from the Nigeria IncentiveBased Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending (NIRSAL) and Royal Exchange
General Insurance.
The webinar centered on NIRSAL’S role in promoting digitization of farming practices in rural communities; using agric-tech to drive precision agric-insurance inclusion among farmers and also extended to how farmers and agri-businesses can build and gain a competitive edge by using such technology to enhance their farming operations and productivity, leveraging on agriculture insurance.
Speaking on the rationale for the webinars, Benjamin Agili, Managing Director/chief Executive, REGIC, stated that “these agriculture insurance webinars we just concluded is the company’s way of expanding the frontiers of agriculture insurance adoption in Nigeria, making it easier to be understood and accepted by farmers, agroprocessors, agropreneurs, farming cooperatives, off takers and other stakeholders nationwide”
The Lagos State Government has applauded the Nigerian Council of Registered Insurance Brokers for the donation of 1,000 pieces of customized facemasks to the officials of Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA).
The Council, in recognition of the risks exposure of LASTMA officials to the COVID-19 in the discharge of their official duties of traffic management in the state, produced facemasks that were distributed to the field officers.
Receiving the materials from the NCRIB team on behalf of the State Government at Lagos State Ministry of Transportation, Ikeja, Fredric Oladeinde, State Commissioner for Transportation appreciated the Council’s gesture and promised to judiciously distribute the facemasks to the officers for protection against infection occasioned by COVID-19.
Oladeinde noted that the Council has again etched its name in the golden book of the state, stressing that the donation of facemasks to the officers would further encourage them to ensure better management of traffic in the city.
“We appreciate the NCRIB for deeming it fit to come our way through the donation of facemasks to LASTMA at this time of pandemic, threatening the existence of human race globally. I am assuring you that we will make good use of what you are donating to us today to the benefit of the officials who are daily exposed to the hazard of COVID-19.
“We will not relent in discharging our responsibilities as traffic management authority in Lagos. Ours is to ensure free flow of traffic in the state”, he assured.
In her remarks earlier remarks Bola Onigbogi, president of the Council, applauded the diligence of the Lagos State Government in managing the Covid-19 pandemic through the pragmatic approach of Governor Babajide Sanwo-olu. She noted that the narrative of the pandemic in Nigeria would have been different without the strategic and foresighted roles of the Government in managing the disease.