Four (4) Insurance Companies that collected over K102 million in premiums from over 1 million local farmers have gone mute after the revelations and confirmation of the 2023/2024 national disaster drought, a trigger point for processing payouts to all FISP registered farmers.
The Weather insurance index under FISP was meant to be an innovative approach aimed at managing climate related risks using a pre–defined index such as rainfall to determine payouts, but a situation reveals that local farmers risks not getting their payouts from the Insurance Companies.
The Ministry of Agriculture has revealed to the Zambian Business Times – ZBT, that ZISC general insurance, Professional insurance, Mayfair and Hollard insurance companies are the companies that collected over K102 million in weather index insurance premiums from over 1 million farmers under the Farmer input support programme (FISP).
Insurance companies that collected the Weather insurance index under FISP are therefore mandated to facilitate the financial pay-outs for FISP farmers to help them recover their investment losses from weather related events such as drought and floods.
According to the official documentation reviewed by ZBT, all beneficiaries under FISP are required to contribute K400 to be eligible to receive inputs and from this contribution, K100 is paid and allocated as a premium towards the weather index insurance for each farming season.
Speaking in an exclusive interview with ZBT, Ministry of Agriculture Director – Agribusiness and Marketing Musoka Mwendalubi disclosed that during the 2023 farming season, 1,024,000 farmers were registered under FISP and therefore contributed towards the weather index insurance premiums.
“For the 2023 season, we had Madison, ZISC general, professional insurance, Mayfair and Hollard insurance Companies. So we have 1,024,000 farmers under FISP. This means that the insurance companies in question collected a total of K102, 400,000 as premium from FISP farmers in the 2023 farming season.” revealed Mwendalubi.
With the severe droughts being experienced in the country, the insurance companies are supposed to pay out FISP beneficiaries covered under this insurance to help them recover their investment losses from the drought.
However, when contacted by ZBT, ZISC general insurance communications and customer experience Officer Penipher Sikainda confirmed that they are indeed among the insurance companies dealing with the weather index insurance for FISP farmers and confirmed ZISC being a part but was unable to give more details and amounts that should be paid back to the affected local farmers.
“It’s not all of them, we do insure the FISP farmers but not all of them. The system was changed so we have several insurance companies that handle insurance for FISP farmers,” she said.
Meanwhile efforts to get comments from Professional insurance, Mayfair and Hollard insurance companies, on how much will be paid to farmers to help them recover their investment losses from drought proved futile by press time.
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