CFI, Thomas Sunday

By Ngozi Onyeakusi—Given the recent flooding that threatened agriculture insurance and food security across the country, the Commissioner For Insurance, National Insurance Commission (NAICOM), Mr Thomas Sunday has assured that Nigerian insurance industry has built capacity to mitigate risks arising from such disaster.
Speaking in an interview with journalists, Sunday who stated that the insurance industry could now boast of over ten underwriting firms handing agriculture insurance noted that before now the sector had only Nigerian Agriculture Insurance Company operating in that aspect of business.
“Before now, we had only the Nigerian Agriculture Insurance Company operating as underwriter for agriculture, but today, we have over 10 because capacity has been built.
Some companies paid premium on the flooding that happened last year and they were indemnified”, he assured.
He emphasised on the need for farmers to embrace insurance, even as he called for their sensitization.
“But it still boils down to sensitization. The farmers must be ready to insure. No matter how good your policy is, it can only cover a willing person that has come forward for it. In this part of the world, we are always looking for help from government, even on things we should manage on our own. That is why we keep encouraging government that tax payers money that is used to support certain individuals can be better handled by commercial concerns, for example, those whose primary duty is to protect risks that are emerging from some of  those transactions including agriculture. In some other jurisdictions, there is partnership between insurance and government in providing insurance cover for those sectors. That is one thing we are working at to see how we can partner the government to cover some of these risks ” , said the commissioner.
Sunday assured that the Commission was working with the government to cover some risks.
“No insurance company will go and take risks that will sink it. You can imagine what has happened to farms in the flooding of last year where people could not cross over to Lokoja”, he said. .