Nigeria: Maximising CBN-NIRSAL’s, NAIC’s agric insurance schemes

CBN• NAIC offers 50% subsidy on food crop insurance premiums • NIRSAL guarantees up to 75% of CBN-facilitated loans Farmers in Nigeria have been urged to take advantage of insurance guarantee and subsidy regimes in agro-industrial value chains emplaced by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), its offshoot, the Nigeria Incentive-Based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending (NIRSAL Plc), and the Nigerian Agricultural Insurance Corporation (NAIC). NIRSAL guarantees loans facilitated by the CBN through commercial banks for agro-industrial businesses, especially in the Anchor Borrowers’ Programme. NAIC also offers a 50-per cent subsidy on food crops but the subsidy does not apply to cash crops such as cashew, cocoa, and palm oil insurance. According to the Managing Director of NAIC, Mrs Folashade Joseph, NAIC runs a subsidy regime on insured crops such as “rice, maize, yam, cassava, sorghum, guinea corn, beans, soya beans and indeed, all food crops. “Subsidised livestock include ...