Kenya: Agriculture Insurance Training Launched

DEVELOPMENT of agriculture insurance in Kenya is set to increase after the College of Insurance launched a weather index insurance training program for underwriters. The training program developed in partnership with the World Bank agriculture risk management team provides technical training to insurance companies that eye index based weather insurance programs.

Weather index based insurance is linked to indicators such as rainfall, temperature, humidity or crop yield rather than actual loss of the covered product.
It is the method used to manage the implementation of agriculture insurance which was previously deemed to complex and expensive to administer by the local industry.
The training will help insurance companies acquire skill required to design, price, and implement agricultural index-based weather insurance programs.
"The program aims at sharing knowledge on index based weather insurance with the East African insurance sector and improving the risk management capabilities of stakeholders working within agricultural supply chains," said Ben Kajwang the Managing Director of the College of Insurance.
Sammy Makove, the CEO of Insurance Regulatory Authority noted that the complexity of procedures has locked out many farmers from taking up agriculture insurance adding that weather index insurance will provide a simple approach to risk mitigation.