Completed SSNUP project gives farmers in West Africa access to crop index insurance 

Despite the dependence on agriculture of large sections of the population in West Africa and an increase in climate hazards, agricultural insurance in the region is still underdeveloped and expensive due to the small scale of the farms and the logistical challenges of processing claims in remote areas.

To facilitate smallholders’ access to insurance, the microinsurance broker Inclusive Guarantee initiated a project with the support of SSNUP and Oikocredit in 2021 with the aim of developing and distributing crop index insurance in the region. Crop index insurance can increase the resilience of smallholder farmers against extreme weather events as it is more affordable and triggers compensation more quickly than traditional insurance.

Upon completion of the project, nearly 70,000 farmers had taken out agricultural insurance for the first time, over 20,000 of whom already received compensation following extreme weather events. 

This large outreach was possible thanks to an extensive network of intermediaries who played a vital role in reaching remote and underserved farming communities. In addition, an extensive awareness-raising campaign was conducted to explain the importance of agricultural insurance to smallholder farmers and to enable them to make informed decisions about their financial security.

This project was completed in December 2022. As the knowledge manager of SSNUP, ADA has distilled lessons learned and good practices which can inspire similar initiatives to advance agricultural insurance in West Africa. To this end, Inclusive Guarantee has already been invited to carry out feasibility studies in other countries such as Niger, Togo and the Republic of the Congo.