Our Correspondent | Agriculture
Leadway Assurance has strengthened its position as a leading player in Nigeria’s agricultural insurance landscape following a new partnership with the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), the National Agricultural Development Fund (NADF), and Verdure Climate to champion a national dialogue on agriculture and climate-risk financing.
The high-level forum, held recently in Abuja and themed “Accelerating Agricultural Lending to Market Actors and Smallholder Farmers Using Index-Based Agric Insurance & Blended Finance Solutions,” brought together policymakers, financiers, agribusiness executives, development partners and value-chain actors to explore scalable mechanisms for reducing risk and expanding access to credit for farmers.
The dialogue comes at a time when agriculture faces heightened vulnerabilities. More than 82 per cent of Nigerian farmers remain uninsured, according to 2024 estimates, while climate-induced disruptions are projected to cut national agricultural productivity by 10–25 per cent by 2080, with rain-dependent regions facing losses of up to 50 per cent. These risks continue to threaten food security, investment flows and rural livelihoods.
Leadway Positions Insurance as a Driver of Productivity
Speaking at the event, Ayoola Fatona, Global Head of Agriculture Risk Solutions at Leadway Assurance, reaffirmed the company’s long-standing mission to use insurance as a catalyst for productivity and financial inclusion.
“We are on a mission to make insurance a catalyst for productivity by ensuring farmers can access credit, adopt climate-keen practices, and recover quickly from weather-related shocks,” he said.
He added that working alongside AGRA, NADF and Verdure Climate enables the co-creation of solutions that strengthen entire agricultural value chains and safeguard Nigeria’s food systems.
Fatona noted that the engagement forms part of Leadway’s AGRA-supported initiative to deepen agricultural resilience through index-based insurance and tailored financial instruments across Niger, Kaduna and Nasarawa States.
“As climate risks intensify, our responsibility extends beyond underwriting; we must become enablers of productivity, inclusion, and long-term stability,” he said. “Index-based insurance, when embedded within blended finance structures, delivers the transparency and scalability required to unlock lending for market actors and smallholder farmers alike.”
Collaboration as a Pathway to Scalable Impact
Speakers emphasised that de-risking agricultural finance requires coordinated action among government institutions, insurers, commercial banks, development organisations and private agribusinesses.
The dialogue underscored the need for integrated solutions that combine insurance, credit and climate-risk analytics to ensure that farmers — from maize growers in Nasarawa to rice producers in Niger — can withstand shocks while financiers confidently expand loan portfolios.
Leadway has made significant investments in agricultural insurance in recent years, offering index-based crop insurance, forging public-private partnerships with state governments, and delivering capacity-building programmes tailored to rural communities. Between 2024 and 2025, the insurer supported interventions that expanded insurance coverage for thousands of smallholder farmers across several states, improving financial stability and supporting agribusiness continuity.
With climate uncertainty rising and agricultural lending still constrained by risk exposure, Leadway’s collaboration with AGRA, NADF and Verdure Climate signals a push toward more resilient, climate-smart and finance-ready agriculture — a critical foundation for Nigeria’s long-term food security and economic growth.