NAIC pays claims to rice farmers in Lagos

Nigerian Agricultural Insurance Corporation (NAIC) has indemnified small-holder farmers in Lagos State whose rice farms were destroyed following heavy drought in September 2013. And considering the role of small-holders farmers in the agricultural value chain, the Lagos State government is excited by the prompt response of the insurance company to enable the 100 affected farmers return to business.

NAIC had recently settled the claims in order to indemnify 100 farmers who had experienced crop losses on over 120 hectares of rice field that was occasioned by drought in September 2013.

In a commendation letter to the Corporation, the permanent secretary of the Lagos State Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives, signed by Olayiwole Onasanya, lauded NAIC for the prompt investigation and payment of the claims, which had ameliorated the pain of the losses suffered by the small-holder farmers.

The permanent secretary while appreciating the due diligence and prompt payment of the claims by NAIC, added that the rice farmers were encouraged and convinced of the critical importance of crop insurance in sustainable agricultural development.

Bode Opadokun, managing director of NAIC, while acknowledging the letter of commendation, urged both large and small scale farmers in the country to embrace Agricultural Insurance to cover the risks that were attendant to agricultural practices, saying in the event of any disaster NAIC would be readily available to settle all verifiable claims.

He assured that NAIC had several insurance covers which all categories of agro-allied business operators could take, saying losses and disasters do not affect local farmers alone, but equally affect the whole agricultural value chain, including the suppliers of inputs as well as the consumers.

Opadokun therefore decried the poor awareness and response of farmers towards agric insurance policies, saying the Corporation primarily existed to indemnify all categories of farmers against unforeseen natural disasters, with the view to keeping the farmers in business at all levels of the agric value chain.

He therefore reassured NAIC clientele nationwide of excellent customers’ service given the present re-engineering initiative of the new management, which is committed to repositioning the Corporation for optimal service delivery in the business environment.

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