From December 2 -  6, 2019, the IFC in collaboration with Africa Re delivered training to the Nigerian insurance market as part of the Index Insurance Technical Assistance Program, which will run until December 2020 and is funded by the WBG’s Global Index Insurance Facility. The program is aimed at providing technical capacity to insurers interested in developing products that will build the resilience of smallholder farmers in the country. In 2019, the number of insured smallholder farmers increased from approximately 15,000 in 2018 to approximately 191,000.

 

The event took place at the Golden Tulip Hotel in Festac, Lagos, with a total of 42 participants in attendance. 29 of these were staff of various local insurance companies, while 8 were drawn from various associations and financial institutions that purchase or plan to purchase insurance on behalf of the farmers they work with, e.g. NIRSAL, the Rice Farmers Association and the National Cotton Association of Nigeria. The insurance regulator and local media were also represented at the event.

 

Over the 5-day period, the participants were taken through the fundamental concepts of agricultural reinsurance and index insurance, with a special focus on weather index, area yield index and revenue insurance products. Participants shared their different experiences in offering or using such products in the local market. The session also provided an opportunity for buyers of index insurance to express their expectations of the insurance industry, which include closer collaboration to understand the unique risks that different value chains are exposed to and the need to explore business-to-business partnerships that would provide value addition to policyholders e.g. early warning weather forecasts delivered directly to individual farmers.