Leadway Urges Farmers To Encourage Agric Insurance

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

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.

"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, “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.