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| Mr Kamuzora |
The Bank of Tanzania (BoT) and the
Tanzania Insurance Regulatory Authority (TIRA) are finalising the formation of
a special unit to oversee the establishment of an insurance cover for crops and
farms to ensure farmers are indemnified from various risks, especially the
vagaries of weather.
This was said in Dar es Salaam on Monday
by the Commissioner of Insurance and TIRA Chief Executive Officer Mr Israel
Kamuzora at the inauguration of the Regional Certificate in Agriculture
insurance programme in the country.
“The process of picking up a consultant
and volunteer staff for the operationalisation of the crop and agriculture
insurance unit has reached an advanced stage,” he said.
He said the main beneficiaries of the
non-commercial insurance cover will be farmers engaging in the cultivation of
food crops like maize, beans, barley and sunflower. The pilot project is
already being carried out in Kilimanjoro region and Mbulu district in Manyara
Region.
“Crop and agriculture insurance is
fundamental to the national economy as adverse weather conditions like drought,
excessive rains and storms that cause heavy losses to farmers pose a major
threat to production, reduced farmers’ incomes, serious farming and decreased
investments,” he said.
Agriculture insurance, he added, will be
extended to cover losses on livestock, fisheries and forestry caused by weather
and similar events beyond the control of farmers.
Despite the fact that the
insurance industry grew at a healthy rate of over 20 per cent annually a decade
ago, its penetration level is just 1 per cent of the country’s Gross Domestic
Product (GDP) against the world average of 2.3 per cent.
Farming remains to be the most important
economic activity in East Africa and in Tanzania it accounts for almost 80 per
cent employment of its citizens. In Kenya, it carries about 75 per cent, Uganda
82 per cent, Malawi 80 per cent, Mozambique 80 per cent and Ethiopia 85 per
cent.
The Director of the Nairobi College of
Insurance said agricultural insurance is a form of risk management used to
hedge against the danger of a contingent that will help smallholder farmers’
access loans from lending houses. “Financial lenders in the region have
traditionally regarded agriculture as too risky an area,” he said.
As trainers rolling the course to
nurture agriculture insurance experts in the region aims to give farmers
assurance for their farming activities that will ultimately call-off weather
related poverty. The course being carried out in Tanzania has already been
rolled out in Kenya and Uganda.
It will later move to the Central
African Republic, the Comoros, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Djibouti,
Eritrea, Ethiopia, Madagascar, Mauritius, Seychelles, Somalia, Sudan and
Zambia.
The training on the Regional Certificate in agriculture insurance is
facilitated in conjunction with the College of Insurance- Kenya, United States
Agency for International Development (USAID) under the Competitiveness and
Trade Expansion (COMPETE) programme, the Institute of Finance Management (IFM)
and TIRA.
Source: The Daily News,http://www.dailynews.co.tz, reported by Sebastian Mrindoko
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