The Nigeria Incentive-Based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending (NIRSAL) has developed a new insurance product which improves on its pioneering Area Yield Index Insurance (AYII) mechanism introduced last year.
NIRSAL said the product is especially targeted at small-holder farmers; the most vulnerable segment in the agricultural sector and the Nigerian population as a whole.
Its Head, Corporate Communications, Anne Ihugba, in a statement explained, said while the cover provided by the earlier product was limited to yield insurance, the new insurance product, NIRSAL Comprehensive Index Insurance (NCII) is a combination of Yield Index, Price Index and Life Insurance.
She said the insurance “is designed to mitigate the impact and losses of both yield risk and market price risk – fundamental risks associated with possible production shortfalls and the uncertainties of the marketplace”.
The new product, an innovative form of revenue insurance, is unique in Africa. It is also the first such product to be achieved without government subsidies on the premium. The deployment of the product begins immediately with a pilot phase as part of NIRSAL’s operations in the CBN’s Anchor Borrowers Program.