Insurer Denies Barring Underwriting Agric Risks

The Managing Director
of the Federal Government owned Nigerian Agricultural Insurance Corporation (NAIC), Mr Bode Opadokun has said that contrary to insinuations in some quarters, no insurance company was banned from underwriting agricultural risks before now.
Mr Opadokun who stated this recently noted that the firm was set up to realise government’s plan of boosting food production and encouraging Nigerians to venture into agricultural business at the time.
“There has never been anytime that general insurance companies were barred from under writing agricultural risks business, what the government had always said is that for anybody that is taking loan should stake insurance from Nigerian Agricultural Insurance Corporation. What informed that at that particular time is to encourage food production,” he said.
According to him, most financial institutions are not interested in providing any form of facility to farmers because there is no form of guaranty that they can get. The corporation started as a scheme when it was set up and the primary objective of the company is not profit making really.
He noted that government wanted to enhance food production having realized that it is only when agricultural loans are guaranteed that financial institutions would be ready to provide facilities for farmers, adding that government intervened to provide the missing link in agricultural insurance.