ZEP-RE, a reinsurance company based in Nairobi, Kenya, has partnered with data provider Planet Labs to expand its drought insurance program in the Horn of Africa (HOA) region.
The reinsurer plans to leverage Planet’s Basemaps products to measure vegetation health for an area of more than 600,000 square kilometres of Eastern Africa.
ZEP-RE will also be utilizing Planet data as its independent calculation agent to quantify conditions and provide metrics to measure drought and scale its risk calculation capabilities.
The outcome will be an insurance program supporting over 250,000 pastoralists in the HOA region, as well as a drought index that can be customized to locations to determine payout amounts, generate premium rates, and enable faster claims.
“At Planet, we are excited to be contributing data to support the livelihoods of pastoral farmers in Africa with ZEP-RE,” said Kevin Weil, President of Product & Business at Planet.
“We believe our data is a powerful and unique source of information for agricultural index insurance, and that it can bring value to vulnerable communities in their daily lives.”
ZEP-RE is the implementing agent of DRIVE, a regional project funded by the World Bank in partnership with the governments of the four participating countries in the HOA; Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia.
“We are thrilled to begin using Planet’s satellite data for the HOA DRIVE Index-Based Livestock Insurance product. With the reliability and quality of the Planet data, we can normalize the stream with our existing data and transition smoothly to continue our business model into the future,” said Ronald Kasapatu, Director of Agriculture & Micro Insurance at ZEP-RE.
