An insurance expert, Ben Ujoatuonu, has disclosed that government policies in the past prevented many insurance companies to take up agriculture insurance in the country.

He said this has changed with the introduction of the Agriculture Transformation Agenda of the present administration.

Ben Ujoatuonu made this disclosure at the unveiling of the Sustainable Food Security (SUFOS) award being put together by Azure Consult, a communication research and human development concern, in partnership with Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) Channel 10 and Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike.

In his words, “Over  time, before 2007, we had  about  105 insurance companies in Nigeria out of these 105 companies, we had only  one agric insurance company which is Nigerian Agricultural Insurance company (NAIC)
“After the  consolidation in the insurance industry in  2007 the companies we had came down to about 49 insurance companies in Nigeria, yet , we still had one insurance company which is government owned.”
He added  “Government gives aids to farmers that want to take up insurance, but now the idea is being thrown open that every other insurance companies can move into agric insurance, this idea is coming  from  the   government  transformation for agriculture .

Ben Ujoatuonu said   practitioners are set to key into the reform in the agriculture industry now as   serious discussion is going on in the sector on how to fashion a platform that will create enabling environment for every operator in the sector to handle agriculture insurance.

“With this the platform  agriculture will get a very robust support from the insurance companies , it will be  of great benefit to the insurance companies, because any way you look at it the agric sector has come to stay in Nigeria”.