ibironkeeniola 
No fewer than 5,000 farmers have been paid their insurance claims worth N1.7 billion in the last two years, the Nigerian Agricultural Insurance Corporation (NAIC) has revealed.
The claims, NAIC said, were paid to cover the losses incurred by the farmers who suffered various setbacks in their farms.
NAIC is the only authorised Federal Government-owned insurance firm saddled with providing agric insurances at subsidised rates to Nigerian farmers.
Launched in 1987, it was institutionalised to restore the confidence and productivity of Nigerian farmers who suffered losses as a result of natural disasters.
The Corporation’s breakdown of the said claims showed that it paid N856 million to insured farmers in 2019 and N848 million in 2020, a report on This Day revealed.
Managing Director of NAIC, Mrs Folashade Joseph, while speaking on the development urged farmers and agric investors to continue to partner with NAIC by taking agricultural insurance cover that will enable them to remain firm in business despite unforeseen circumstances.
She said that NAIC currently deals with thousands of farmers across the country, adding that the corporation serves farmers with investment as little as N100, 000, and at the same time serves multinational farmers.
“Agribusiness is evolving fast and so many risks are being thrown up, many new participants are coming into the business of agriculture, and the risks are on the increase if you look at them across the value chain.
“There are not so many participants so we need to keep sensitising the farmers and let them know we are serving them, and we need to know from them how to serve them
“Our assurance to farmers is that when they are insured and they suffer losses covered by any of the policies they purchased, including natural disasters and whatever, they will get paid for their losses, and that is the purpose of insurance and setting up NAIC.
“Our motor is ‘Plowing the Farmer Back to Business, Plowing the Farmers into Prosperity’, and we settle claims,” she said.
On the sensitisation, Folashade noted that the essence was to let the farmers know and understand exactly what NAIC does, the importance of insurance, and make them understand how insurance works.
She also added that it was crucial to ensure that farmers understood how they can access NAIC products and services, how to process their claims, as well as what insurance stands to do for them.