Wanted: Insurance products to mitigate flood risks

• Published date: 12 January 2023
• Publication title: Nigeria - The Nation

Among West African countries, Nigeria is one of the most flood-prone, with climate change as one of the exacerbating factors of this crisis. Floods have become a recurring occurrence, with the hardest hit being the rural areas where agriculture is the main source of livelihood for the vast majority of the people. In this report, DANIEL ESSIET examines ways to tame climatic challenges and how insurance cover can serve as an elixir for flood risks.

Akin Alabi, a Lagos-based agro entrepreneur, is struggling to pull through the devastation of his vast hectares of farmland which were destroyed by a dense flood in September last year. For him, it was the worst disaster to hit the country in more than a decade. All his farm produce were washed off by the flood. When the flood receded, he had to begin life anew.

Alabi was not alone in this unsavoury situation. Several farmers are still counting their losses. Some of them are grimly affected, so much so that making a comeback is almost impossible. Alabi organisation's farm project in Kebbi State had the potential to generate close to 100,000 jobs. Though situations are normalising, he thinks through the fact that they may not be as swift as he would want to. He is among the farmers in Nigeria that are facing multiple challenges, ranging from declining water supply and extreme weather, such as floods or drought. These and other factors impact dangerously on food production.

Flood is one of the main environmental factors affecting the agricultural sector. The recent flood in the country has made managing environmental risk a major theme. Alabi told The Nation that the flood has jeopardised food security and people's livelihoods, and caused a major disruption to agricultural exports.

Corroborating Alabi's views, one of his partners in the industry, Prince Ade Ajayi maintained that farmers are struggling to recover from the massive flooding of agricultural crops and farmlands. For him, calculating the financial losses may be mindboggling. Ajayi said: 'Flooding led to the destruction of many crops across the country. The unique thing about this year's flooding was that it was not particular to Nigeria. It impacted negatively on most countries, including Brazil. But it caused huge havoc to farmers along Benue and Niger Rivers and their tributaries. We have farms in Jigawa, which were completely submerged. Our friends who own farms in Anambra West suffered huge losses because their farms were submerged.'

He maintained that extreme weather, such as...