Leadway Assurance Company Limited has entered into a strategic partnership with Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) through a $399,900, equal to N642 million grant.
The initiative is to implement the “Building Farmers’ Resilience through Innovative Insurance Models and Financial Instruments” towards deepening agricultural resilience across Nigeria,
AGRA is an African institution supporting inclusive agricultural transformation and sustainable food systems. This three-year initiative, running from March 2025 to March 2028, aims to transform the livelihoods of 21,000 smallholder farmers (SHFs) across Kaduna, Nasarawa, and Niger States.
Commenting on the initiative, Fatona Ayoola, head, Agribusiness, Leadway Assurance, described the partnership with AGRA as a decisive moment for agricultural risk management in Nigeria.
“By bringing bespoke parametric insurance solutions to underserved communities who are vulnerable to the negative impact of climate change and aligning them with broader value chain interventions, we are not only protecting livelihoods but also rebuilding trust in farming as a viable business for rural Nigerians.”
According to Rufus Idris, country director at AGRA, “For Nigeria’s agricultural transformation and food security efforts to succeed amid increased climate uncertainty, insurance needs to work better in helping smallholder farmers protect their farmlands and crops from climate change shocks (flood, draught, pest and diseases, etc.). Hence, this project aims to help build on a proven model and catalyze resources for a wider access to insurance and adoption by smallholder farmers”.
Read also: Leadway Assurance equips SMEs with risk protection as festive season nears
Climate change continues to escalate risks for Nigerian farmers, manifesting in unpredictable rainfall, prolonged droughts, extremely high lethal temperatures and increased crop failure.
This volatility threatens national food security/systems and undermines years of agricultural progress. Recognising the scale of this challenge, Leadway Assurance has taken a bold step forward, championing innovative risk management strategies tailored to the realities of rural agriculture.
At the heart of the new intervention is the “Pay at Harvest” insurance scheme, an innovative premium collection model that enables farmers to defer insurance payments until after harvest, when liquidity is more assured. This approach lowers the financial barriers to insurance enrolment, increases uptake among SHFs, and embeds resilience within the agricultural value chain.
“Pay at Harvest” empowers farmers to protect their livelihoods without upfront costs, ensuring they can bounce back from climate-related losses and secure credit, inputs, and market access with greater confidence.
This new grant builds upon Leadway Assurance’s successful three-year partnership with Heifer International, under which over 60,000 smallholder farmers benefited from the “Pay at Harvest” model.
By 2028, the initiative aims to facilitate $10 million in agricultural credit, launch six new financial products tailored to smallholder farmer needs and disseminate four knowledge products to drive broader sectoral adoption.
