According to estimates from the International Trade Administration, Nigeria needs to import almost $10 billion in goods to make up for its deficiencies in food and agricultural output. Ken Aghoghovbia, the Deputy Managing Director of the African Reinsurance Corporation, made this claim.
Aghoghovbia gave a speech on Wednesday at the Africa Reinsurance Corporation Agriculture Workshop in Lagos. Key players in Nigeria’s agriculture insurance sector were gathered for the two-day event, which was arranged under the International Finance Corporation’s technical assistance provider mandate for the Nigeria Climate Insurance project.
The principal aim of the workshop was to establish a cooperative forum for prominent stakeholders in the sector, such as insurance companies, governmental bodies, farmers’ associations, insurance regulators, financial institutions, input vendors, and commercial farms.
Despite its GDP contribution, the agricultural sector has been negatively impacted by a number of shocks, including floods and the degradation of crop and pasture land, according to Aghoghovbia’s opening comments. He mentioned the limited usage of modern technologies, poor access to funding, and disputes between herders and local farmers as other obstacles to the sector’s expansion.
He said that these issues had severely reduced the sector’s production and raised the need for imported food by creating a large imbalance between the supply and demand of food in the area.
He said, “The International Trade Administration estimates that Nigeria relies on about $10 billion of imports to meet its food and agricultural production shortfalls.
“Agriculture Insurance, you would agree, holds great promise in turning around the fortunes of Nigeria’s agriculture sector.
“In the last five years, Agriculture insurance has received considerable attention from the insurance market players in Nigeria who have been attracted by the opportunities that stem from the need to commercialise and modernise Agriculture production and the quest of successive governments to diversify the economy.
“With approximately 70 million hectares of agriculture land and diversity of Agriculture enterprises, Nigeria’s Agriculture Insurance market has the potential to generate a premium of over $600m.”
