The African Risk Capacity Insurance Limited, a financial affiliate of provider of parametric sovereign disaster risk insurance to African nations, African Risk Capacity (ARC), has paid out $745,000 to the Government of Côte d’Ivoire after rainfall deficits in the 2019 agricultural season.
In September of this year, ARC’s parametric tool, Africa RiskView, found that irregular and insufficient rainfall in the central region of the country will have an adverse impact on the food security of roughly 400,000 people by the end of the growing season.
The payout from ARC is expected to benefit up to 32,496 individuals corresponding to 6,500 households, who are set to receive additional aid from the Government.
The payout of $745,000 comes soon after ARC announced that the country of Senegal would receive at least $22 million from the disaster risk insurer, to cover losses from crop failures driven by drought in the 2019 agricultural season.
Côte d’Ivoire has been a member of the ARC Agency since 2014, and subscribed to the ARC Insurance pool for the first time in 2019 with the signing of two policies for rainfall deficit covering both its Central and Northern regions. The severe rainfall deficits recorded that have triggered the country’s parametric insurance policy, occurred mainly in the Hambol Valley, Gbeke, and Marahoue regions.
Adama Coulibaly, the Honourable Minister for Economy and Finance, Government of Côte d’Ivoire, said: “The Government of Cote d’Ivoire takes the food security of its populations very seriously. Therefore, His Excellency, President Alassane Ouattara supports the collaboration with African Risk Capacity to ensure we can provide timely assistance to our vulnerable population and strengthen their capacity to cope with this kind of disaster.”
Director-General of ARC Agency, Mohamed Beavogui, added: “Providing Member States with the innovative tools to respond to natural disaster risks in a more timely and predictable manner gratifies our efforts. We are grateful to the Government of Cote d’Ivoire, and especially the Minister of Economy and Finance, for the confidence in our mechanism which has brought hope to the vulnerable population affected by the drought.”
While the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of ARC Insurance Limited, Dolika Banda, commented: “Often, when natural disasters of this nature occur, the lives and livelihoods of women and, especially female-headed households are disproportionately impacted. We are happy that the details of the FIP for the payout adequately reflect our mutual concern for gender.”
Since 2014, Member states have signed 37 policies with ARC with $74 million paid in premiums for a cumulative insurance coverage of $544 million for the protection of some 54 million vulnerable individuals.
