NAIC, Zurich Reinsurance partners to mitigate farming risk, MD says Jigawa issue is knowledge gap

In his determination to reposition Nigerian Agricultural Insurance Corporation (NAIC) towards effective service delivery to clients, the Managing Director, Mr. Bode Opadokun has approached a second best insurance company in the world for partnership which will soon be signed as  Memoradum of Understanding (MOU) during the World Economic Submit in Nigeria just as he described the sorghum issue at Jigawa state as knowledge gap on the part of farmers.

Mr. Opadokun said the partnership with this world class insurance Company from Zurich will bring about training of the NAIC staff in core agricultural insurance risk management that would enhance mitigating losses usually incurred by small scale farmers as twenty thousand naira (N20, 000.00) policy package per hectare will soon be given to farmers so as to reduce losses on produce saying this is a great achievement in shortest time.

In his chat with the Editor-In Chief, Food Farm News, Mr. Ayeni Oladehinde, he said the two companies will sign MOU during the world economic summit in Abuja adding that   the partnership will change the face of agricultural risk insurance management in the country through value addition to Agricultural Transformation Agenda of the Mr. President with special attention to small scale farmers’ risk mitigation through improved packages, prompt responses to services and grassroots sensitization. Read the excerpt of his interview below where he speaks on the outcome of the management retreat and steps taken towards repositioning the corporation for effective leadership in the industry.

Sir, how would you compare the experience in the private sector to public sector with your short time?
Thank you very much; there is a slight difference in the two sectors in terms of time involvement in the face of competitive delivery. In the private sector, especially in the service industry like ours, what we use as measurement of performance is time space you can surpass your targets as related to delivery. This may not be too visible in the public sector, but this does not mean timeliness cannot be injected into public sector for better service delivery to customers’ related public organization like ours.

This is just a matter of orientation and allowing people to know importance of matching time and service delivery to edge competitors. So part of measuring performance is how well we can deliver within the space of time. In terms of technical skill just as in private sector, we also have it here but there is need for training and re training using time promptness to win customers. This is important as it will help the economy of the customers to recover from losses by quick re purchase to replace losses thereby helping the general economy to grow with multiplier effects.

Is that why you always come earlier as I have seen that severally?
Yes that is part of the orientation I feel must be injected into the organization. You are quite right in terms of punctuality and that is already reflecting in my staff as things are already changing. Basically it is important to let people have the clear objective of what they should do, and once everybody understands this, it makes implementation easier and there is bound to be achievement. But there could be problem when people are not being carried along and this is what informed the corporation to hold a retreat which was held last ten years ago.

If I may ask, what are things you can point as achievement within the short time of your arrival towards mitigating risk incurred by farmers?
Precisely I officially resumed duty on 1 of March, but I am happy because of what we have been able to achieve since then. This clearly confirms we are not only talking but also working. The management retreat was held after about ten years of such and it was loaded with resource persons who educated our organization management in all areas of business opportunities especially in the Agricultural Transformation Agenda (ATA) of the Federal Government being paddled by our parent Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development under the leadership of Dr. Akinwumi Adesina. The retreat comprises fifty four (54) participants which includes all our regional and branch managers from all the 36 states of the federation and heads of unit and department at the head office. It was an avenue to meet some of our staff that I have not met since my arrival. We looked at six strategic areas with our facilitators and three other people that took the lead papers. We did Chain Management Team Building and Leadership,- Dynamics of Prospecting and Maintaining Good Business, and thirdly Opportunity and Role of NAIC in ATA of the Federal Government. We came up with Strategic Business Initiatives (SBI). One major area we spent quality time on is the design of Strategic Business Purpose (SBP) for the corporation.

We looked at the things we need to do to bring about a positive turn around, in terms of competiveness that will enhance growth. For example prior to my resumption, our premium income is about one billion naira despite our potential in terms of human and materials resources. To my mind 1 billion naira is a foul cry to where we suppose to be as an institution who is a leader in the agricultural insurance. The topic under Opportunity and Role of NAIC in ATA was able to give insight into many business opportunities that exist. We are able to identify challenges and come up with six Strategic Business Initiatives (SBI) through group syndicate. First is Communication and Branding (2) Enhanced Business Product (3) Skill and capacity Building i.e. training and re training of staff (4) Budget and Planning (5) Marketing and Research (6) Performance and Reward.

 Thereafter we set up committee for these SBI. They are to do a proper break down of what and what each SBI will involve. For example what does communication and branding entails when it comes to internal and external passing of information through the interface of computer. Meaning the information that is passed to Ibadan will be the same to Sokoto at a time. By the grace of God we will give a face lift to our working environment for job encouragement and motivation. We belief this will enhance external business from customers who will now see us as more serious than ever. Like I said about training, two weeks ago I was in Zurich together with a principal officer for a meeting purposed for business partnership especially in the area of technical agricultural support services.

This is very important as NAIC is the only leading organization when it comes to writing of agricultural insurance risk and much is so expected from us as far as covers in the sub sector is concern in Nigeria. For us to be more effective in our leadership role there is need to look outside for more technical partners for more skill acquisition that will enhance performance of our mandate and position in the industry. We cannot just sit back assuming we are there without being more proactive to ensuring global insurance policy packages especially in the face of climate challenges in Nigeria.

The Swiss Reinsurance, Zurich, Switzerland will be coming to Nigeria for the world economic summit and we shall be signing a MOU in the area of technical support to human capacity building, product development and reinsurance. This is a great achievement for us within the short moment of my arrival into office. I want to mention that this Swiss Reinsurance is second in the world in terms of rating, so such organization coming up to partner with us is a great achievement as it is going to reflect in our technical knowhow as regards insurance policy packages we are about to give to small scale farmers towards mitigating agricultural losses . The package is called Stop Loss Reinsurance Scheme (SLRIS) which involves giving N20,000.00 compensation per hectare and it is  targeted at small scale farmers to mitigate losses incurred as a result of drought, pest and diseases attack, fire and flood and we are starting with about two states as a pilot project before we will let it go round the whole of the federation. We are already sending statistical data to Swiss Reinsurance so as to commence work for better package that will be transferred to farmers towards proactive measure of militating against losses in Agriculture.

What is your take on the issue of Jigawa Sorghum issue where stakeholders are calling for your compensation?
I think what happens in this particular case is just knowledge gap on the part of some of the farmers. I think part of the solution is continued sensitization through work shop, both at states and regional levels. The sorghum issue in Jigawa is an issue that has nothing to do with NAIC because it was not under our insurance cover which includes drought, pest or diseases attack, flood and fire. The problem is seeds that refuse to fruit despite germination and growth. It not problem of flood or drought which is weather related that falls into our mandate.

The seeds are insurable perils and it is an act of omission by professional before procurement which falls on the lap of the breeders who did not give right prescription of the seeds that are ecologically adaptable to the state’s soil in terms of rain duration.  It is important farmers take seed breeders’ prescription very serious before procurement and planting. Also it very important to ensure trial planting in order to ascertain the seeds efficacy like NAIC is embarking on a pilot of  Stop Loss Reinsurance Scheme (SLRIS) to small scale farmers in two states so as to ensure its effectiveness before taking it to the other states.