By Favour Nnabugwu
The Nigerian Agricultural Insurance Corporation (NAIC), is building a data bank to cover farmers according what they produce in all states across the nation.
The firm’s Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Folashade Joseph, said this in an interview with Journalists at the just concluded 47th African Insurance Organisationtion (AIO) Conference and National Assembly in Lagos.
She stated that for insurance business to be effective and sustainable, operators should have farmers’ robust data, which they should leverage to promote their operations.
“If we have this it will help us to monitor our farm processes, storage. it will also help us as an insurance company in the agric sector to deploy products that will be useful to the agric sector.
“Data for farmers will helps us know how many farmers we have in each state and what each person is into such as rice production, maize, cassava and even processing of the produce. This is very important so that we can effectively monitor and improve on our processes,” she submitted.
She noted that index insurance can not operate effectively without accurate data.
”It is only when we have the correct data which we will improve every year that we can effectively achieve our objectives. That is key to us in NAIC and we have spoken to our supervising ministry and other stakeholders like CBN, on the need to get a perfect data.”
She also maintained that NAIC is at the verge of deploying drone to inspect and monitor farm lands against flood and insecurity.
According to her, “This is one of strategies adopted by the firm which is aimed at improving its service delivery to policyholders. She added that the drone has not been deployed because the firm is on the process of obtaining a license to engage in such venture.
She assured that once the issue of licensing and registration are completed they will deploy the drone.
She maintain that the firm has incurred claims from flood and insecurity, adding that the company has sustained its awareness campaign with is target at ensuring food security in the country.
She implored those withing the agric value chain to insurance their business with her firm, which she said has presence across the nation.
