In a move to sustain and achieve long-term growth expectation in Nigeria’s agricultural sector, National Insurance Commission (NAICOM), has given Linkage Assurance Plc the approval to underwrite agric insurance.
The products approved include Linkage Assurance Crop Insurance Solutions, Linkage Assurance Farm All Risk lnsurance, Linkage Assurance Farm Motor Insurance, and Linkage Assurance Livestock lnsurance solutions.
NAICOM’s approval will allow the underwriting firm to support the farmers and service providers in the agricultural value chain for greater sustainability and economic growth.
The company said that Nigeria’s agribusiness sector needs insurance to remain sustainable and achieve long-term growth expectation, adding that stakeholders in the agricultural value chain need to embrace insurance by reducing retained risk and transferring the burden to insurers for effective risk management.
The Linkage Assurance Crop Insurance Solutions provides cover against unavoidable loss of crops or resulting directly from the insured perils, example flood, drought, excessive rains, hailstorm, diseases, and pest, with covers including Weather lndex Crop Insurance, Area Yield – lndex Crop lnsurance, and Multi-peril Crop Insurance.
The Linkage Assurance Farm All Risk lnsurance is designed to cover the farm buildings/contents, farm products, and machineries against theft and fire.
In its half-year 2018 results for the period ended June 2018, Linkage Assurance Plc recorded a gross premium income of N2.49 billion in 2018 as against N2.06 billion in the same period in 2017, which shows an increase of N436 million.
Profit before tax, however, dropped from N2.44 billion in H1 2017 to N750 million in 2018. In the same vein, profit after tax slipped from N2.29 billion in H1 2017 to N493 million in 2018. The company reported an earning per share of 6.2 kobo in this period, compared to 28.7 declared in 2017.
The insurance firm’s stock traded at N0.74 during trading session on the floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE).
