NiMET Forecast: Leadway Assurance Charges Farmers On Agric Insurance

The managing director/CEO of Leadway Assurance Company Limited, Mr. Tunde Hassan-Odukale, has charged farmers across the country to procure the necessary agric and flood related insurance policies to secure their investments, following the earlier warning from the Nigeria Meteorological Agency (NiMET) about this year’s rainfall and flooding expectations.

NiMET had forecasted that 2023 will witness an early onset of rainfall accompanied by flooding, adding that, from March, coastal areas in the South-South, particularly Bayelsa, Akwa Ibom, and Rivers State, will experience downpours; Southern Inland cities will see precipitation in April, while central states will see rain in May.

NiMET also predicted extended rainfall in Gombe, Kaduna, Kwara, Enugu, Anambra, Ogun, and Lagos states.

In 2022, floods resulted in 662 deaths across 33 states as the deluge of rain washed away years of investments in agriculture, hundreds of hectares of farmlands, and properties estimated at trillions of Naira while the national economy lost over N4.2 trillion to the floods.

To this end, Hassan-Odukale said, this year’s weather forecast paints a bleak picture, especially, against the backdrop of the prevailing global inflation and economic vulnerabilities and uncertainties.

As expected, he stressed that these projections call for a prompt response from all stakeholders.

“As a nation, as agribusiness investors, business owners, property and asset managers, families, and individuals, we must proactively take action to mitigate the disheartening and devastating human and material losses from the flooding incidents in 2022,” he warned.

Stating that Leadway Assurance has designed insurance policies to help victims of devastating flooding recover from the massive financial losses, he pointed out that, “to the Agricultural market, which contributed 26.97 per cent to the national GDP in 2022, as the most vulnerable sector to flood devastation. The National Agricultural Extension and Research Liaison Services (NAERLS), Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, estimated that the industry lost about 700 billion Naira to the 2022 flood.”

He, therefore, advised farmers to be cautious and proactive to subscribe to the right insurance policies with his insurer, promising prompt claims payment upon any insured disaster.