ibironkeeniola The Nigerian Agricultural Insurance Corporation (NAIC) has revealed that over 1 billion naira has been paid to farmers as claim within the first half of 2019.
The Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, NAIC, Mrs. Folashade Joseph made this known during a three-day Agricultural Insurance Sensitisation Workshop for North Central held at Goshen City, Keffi Local Government, Nasarawa State.
The workshop anchored by NAIC and the House of Representatives Committee on Agriculture had in attendance farmers and other key players in the agricultural value chain who were lectured on different ways of securing the various ventures using the Agricultural insurance scheme under NAIC.
Mrs. Joseph said, “It is important for people to know that not insuring their farms is like almost committing suicide. Unfortunately, in the first half of this year, we have paid over a billion naira as claims to farmers – of course, those that have insured their farms.
“I am sure you are aware of the recent flood, it is really a bad case and that is why we are sensitising the farmers not just those in production alone, but also others in the value chain and it is important for them to remain in farming and for us to plough them back to farming, they must be involved in insurance.”
Mr. Abudulhamid Haruna, a member of the NAIC board, who spoke in support of the farmers, explained the challenges of farmers while trying to access loans at the Bank of Agriculture.
“The real farmers are not the ones always wearing agbada with their farms well-fenced and secured with heavy security; the real farmers are the locals who earn their living from farming and so deserve the support of the Bank of Agriculture”, Haruna stated.
However, Amina Habib, who represented the CBN at the event, said the federal government is making frantic efforts towards recapitalization of the Bank of Agriculture for it to meet farmers’ needs.
SOURCE: AGRONIGERIA