Farmers in flood-prone areas now have the opportunity to protect their investments and assets against the effects of flood, drought, bushfire, and other natural catastrophes that may affect their productivity and harvest.
This is coming on the heels of Mutual Benefits Assurance Plc’s Agricultural Insurance marketing drive that intends to meet farmers at their locations and offer them varieties of protection as floods threaten farms and food security across the Country.
This however has become more important now, as meteorological reports show that there will be heavy rains and floods this year that could have impacts on farms and residential areas in flood-prone communities.
For Bello Abdullahi, a 49-year-old livestock farmer in a community in Nasarawa State, “this is an opportunity for me to avoid the kind of bad experience I had with floods in 2018 and 2021”.
For many years, farmers in that community have suffered losses due to floods, which year-in and year-out sweep farms in that area resulting in loss of livestock and crops in their millions of Naira.
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For Abdullahi, it was a big relief as he had suffered losses in the past years without compensation, and in about three of the cases, he was out of business for one to two years before he was able to raise funds through his family members and friends to be able to come back to the farms.
Abdullahi, who expressed his joy at meeting marketers from Mutual Benefits, said “It is a welcome development for me and other members of my community to partner with Mutual Benefits for the protection of our farms.
Abdullahi said, we are happy that insurance has come to our rescue, and we will insure our farms.
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According to him, farmers think insurance is too expensive, but to our surprise, it is very reasonable, he said.
“Premium for Agricultural Insurance is not too big as we are being told now, and we will embrace it,” Abdullahi, said.
Mutual Benefits Assurance recently visited some farm clusters in the Nasarawa community to introduce their Agricultural Insurance products through a group Insurance arrangement, which covers livestock, crop among other products, that will enable them to return to business after a loss.
The Mutual Benefits’ Agricultural Insurance Policies offer cover for loss or damage to crops resulting from flood, fire, windstorms, diseases and pests, lightning, explosion and drought.
It also covers loss or damage to livestock as a result of death, injury, diseases, flood, fire, windstorm, etc.
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The Company asserts that its Insurance Policies offer a range of valuable benefits, including protection, certainty, and risk-sharing. These Agricultural product offerings include Livestock Insurance and Multi-Peril Crop Insurance among others.
According to the Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, in 2022 flood wreaked havoc in 31 states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
The affected states are Adamawa, Anambra, Gombe, Jigawa, parts of Kaduna, Kogi, Niger, Delta, Benue, Nasarawa, etc., where some farmers suffered losses, and some even lost their lives.
The National Insurance Commission (NAICOM) had recently granted Mutual Benefits Assurance Plc the license to underwrite Agricultural Insurance having met all the regulatory requirements necessary to cover the class of Insurance.
