Ghana’s agriculture sector gets $150,000 insurance grant from USAID
Ghana’s agriculture sector has received a $150,000 insurance grant.
The Ghana Agricultural Insurance Pool (GAIP) received the $150,000 grant from the USAID-Financing Ghanaian Agriculture Project (USAID-FinGAP) to enable GAIP to offer, market, and sell insurance products to agribusinesses and financial institutions in Ghana, a press release from the donors has said.
According to the release GAIP is made up of 19 insurance companies – all of them members of the Ghana Insurers Association (GIA). Formed in 2011GAIP offers agricultural insurance products to agribusinesses in Ghana. It also offers weather index, area yield, multi-peril crop and poultry insurance cover to protect against extreme weather patterns, allowing these businesses to remain in production following a disaster.
These insurance products also enable agribusinesses gain greater access to inputs and credit, increasing their profitability and in the process lead to more investments, the release added.
The organizations signed the grant agreement December 19, 2014 in Accra.
Commenting, Rick Dvorin, Chief of Party of USAID-FinGAP, said, “GAIP’s insurance products are crucial to USAID-FinGAP’s ability to leverage on financing from financial institutions who are interested in mitigating their risk to the agribusiness sector.”
“Supporting GAIP to carry out promotion and marketing activities will build sustainability into its operations as more businesses would buy their products and thereby offering an opportunity of revenue and sustainability,” he adds.
Alhaji Ali Muhammad Katu, General Manager of GAIP, thanked USAID-FinGAP for the grant.
He said, “the grant will go a long way to improve GAIP’s product distribution among financial institutions and agribusinesses in the three regions of the North, by setting up offices in Tamale, Wa and Bolgatanga.”
According to the press release, the USAID-FinGAP is a five-year project that is unlocking financing for agribusinesses in the rice, maize and soy value chains based in or sourcing raw materials from northern Ghana.
Since its inception in July 2013, the project has facilitated over $5 million in financing for agribusinesses in the target areas, it adds.
By Emmanuel K Dogbevi