An Insurance Company in Nigeria, AIICO Insurance Plc has launched its Agriculture Insurance policy. This comes at a time when the Agricultural sector is in dire need of enough insurance for the protection of investments in a sector that contributes about 24% to the country’s GDP and provides over 60% employment opportunities to the teeming population.
Mr. Edwin Igbiti, the Managing Director of AIICO, who spoke during the official launch of the policy in Lagos, said the company was strategically positioning itself to be a major player in offering Agriculture Insurance in order to deliver the much needed protection to the various players in the agricultural value chain. Because the insurance coverage in the country is still extremely low in comparison to small hold farmers, it has become imperative for Insurance companies to deliver the necessary protection against risk exposure to farmers and other stakeholders in the Agricultural sector.
He said: “Having recently obtained approval of our regulator, NAICOM, as an agricultural insurance underwriter, the company is uniquely positioned to offer both the indemnity and index based agricultural products to all farmers at all levels”.
He added: “As investors, we are looking to tap the good potential of the sector through its value based insurance proposition. It is our fine belief that our boldness in introducing full array of agricultural insurance product offerings to the market will go a long way to support the initiative and intervention of government and job governmental organisations towards the development of the agricultural sector.”