New agriculture strategy for Tanzania to launch in June 2022

Tanzania should have a new agricultural insurance strategy in place by June of next year. Speaking at an agriculture insurance webinar, organised by the Insurance Institute of Tanzania, Dr Juma Musa, commissioner at the Tanzania Insurance Regulatory Authority, said the government had launched work on the strategy in 2017 and he was hopeful that by June 2022, the new strategy would be in place.

Agriculture in Tanzania contributes 30% of GDP, while 70% of the population are farmers and about 77% are employed in the agriculture sector. Agriculture contributes about 65% of total exports and includes crop, livestock, horticulture, aquaculture and forestry.

Dr Musa said: “There are a lot of challenges when it comes to offering agriculture insurance. There is a long chain in agriculture and lots of different sectors, from crops in the group to producers, storage facilities, exporters etc. We need insurance to cover all the risks along the value chain.”

Added to that, he said there are a lot of risks for insurers themselves and a lot of costs. These include administration when it comes to insurance, assessment costs, marketing costs – all of which need to be paid by insurers. As a result, said Dr Musa: “When it comes to determining premium, insurers should take all those costs into account, however when you work out the actual premium that has to be paid, the ability for farmers to pay is difficult.”

The new strategy, he said, will provide a regulatory framework, which will enable insurers to design new products. Dr Musa added that any workable solution has to involve government, the institutions and industry to make sure that agricultural insurance can really contribute to the sector.

Africa Ahead.