*PLAN IS TO INCREASE NUMBER OF INSURED FARMERS FROM 500,000 TO 3.8M
The Nigeria Incentive Based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending (NIRSAL Plc) on Tuesday 10th October signed a partnership agreement with two reputable Moroccan agricultural insurance and re-insurance companies, Mutuelle Agricole Marocaine D’Assurances (MAMDA) and MAMDA Reassurance to expand the range of agricultural insurance products and coverage in Nigeria.
The partnership is designed to enable the exchange of ideas, enhance NIRSAL’s technical capacity to develop innovative and targeted insurance products to protect small, medium and large scale agricultural investments from natural disasters such as floods, droughts and crop diseases.
NIRSAL’s collaboration with MAMDA and MAMDA Re is a product of the bilateral agreements that the President of Nigeria Muhammadu Buhari signed in December 2016 during the visit of the King of Morocco King Mohammed VI.
Specifically, the partnership will include the design and development of named peril crop insurance, index- based insurance products including Area, Weather and Yield.
It will also involve advanced technical training on surveying aggregated smallholder farmlands, large commercial and plantations farms and loss assessment methods, technical training on Geographic Information system(GIS),technology for agriculture and Remote Sensing application in Agricultural Crop Insurance;
Another significant part of the program is the extensive training of NIRSAL employees in Morocco in all areas related to agricultural insurance and related risk management tools.
Other aspects include provision of technical assistance to NIRSAL in new insurance product development, training in the use of technology to enhance agricultural productivity and capacity building on parametric insurance establishment and development;
Speaking during the event, the Managing Director of NIRSAL, Mr. Aliyu Abdulhameed stated that “as a private sector led policy tool of the government exercising the mandate to de-risk agriculture, increase private sector investment to unleash the sector’s unmatched potential for job creation, food security and economic diversification” NIRSAL is particularly excited at the collaboration.
Mr. Abdulhameed further stated that the strong insurance focus of the collaboration is in line with NIRSAL’s corporate objective to expand insurance products for agricultural lending.
He added that NIRSAL’s target is “to move insurance coverage from the level of about 0.5 million to 3.8 million agricultural primary producers. This will help reduce credit risks, increase lending and investment across the entire agricultural value chain”.
The Chief Executive of NIRSAL thanked the President, Muhammadu Buhari for his leadership and vision to entrench agriculture as the driver of Nigeria’s economy.
Mr Abdulhameed also commended the leadership of MAMDA and MAMDA Re for taking the bold step in partnering with NIRSAL. This is in continuation of its mandate to de-risk agriculture and facilitate the flow of finance to the sector to help achieve the objectives of the Economic Recovery Growth Plan (ERGP) of the Buhari led administration to diversify the economy, attain self-sufficiency in food production and entrench inclusive economic growth.
