The African Development Bank (AfDB) has launched the Africa Climate Risk Insurance Facility for Adaptation (ACRIFA) to protect countries from severe weather catastrophes.
Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, president of the AfDB, made this declaration in a statement posted on the bank’s website.
At the African Climate Summit in Nairobi, Kenya, Adesina gave a speech.
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The bank will host the facility, which will transform its ground-breaking Africa Disaster Risk Insurance Program into a facility that will create insurance to support African nations.
“Specifically, their agriculture sectors, prepare for, adapt and build resilience against adverse effects of climate change such as flooding and drought.
‘It will raise an initial one billion dollars of concessionary high-risk capital and grants to catalyse the development and uptake of insurance solutions.
“This will help countries, businesses and communities adapt to climate change,” he stated.
The program, according to the head of the AfDB, is part of the bank’s attempt to scale up assistance for protecting people and nations against catastrophic weather patterns.
According to him, extreme weather patterns have a detrimental effect on the lives of millions of African farmers, the majority of whom are women.
He contends that ensuring farmers have access to crop and animal insurance is one method of addressing this problem.
“The Africa Climate Risk Insurance Facility for Adaptation will extend credit insurance to investment portfolios related to climate, agri-food system and enterprise development.
“It will engage primary insurers across Africa to ensure business opportunities flow through them to continental and international re-insurers.
“In addition, it will support national governments to more efficiently manage climate disasters,” he explained.
The African Union Chair and President of the Comoros, Azali Assoumani, addressed at the occasion and called the program a vital innovation.
The establishment of ACRIFA is timely given the severity and frequency of national disasters in African nations, including floods and drought, which have a negative influence on agriculture.
“It will help us to strengthen our adaptation and resilience capacities.
“Comoros is just 2,000 square kilometers. We cannot unlock our touristic potential when we face severe climate risks.”
“And therefore the importance of this facility to Comoros, which continues to experience adverse realities of climate change,” he said.
The African Risk Capacity Group’s director general and assistant secretary general for the UN, Ibrahima Diong, stated that ACRIFA would aid in scaling up the work being done by the group.
According to him, risk transfer involves more than simply insurance premiums and also the events that occur before a disaster, which is why there is a facility that will aid in the collection of data used to fuel early warning systems in Africa.
He declared that ACRIFA would build new alliances to provide services to customers like the World Food Programme.
The World Food Programme’s Martin Frick expressed enthusiasm for ACRIFA’s ability to increase insurance coverage for farmers who require it.
According to Frick, “The Facility will help unlock private sector capital and we can inject trust in the market and unleash more capital than is currently provided in the market.”
Dr. Beth Dunford, vice president for agriculture, human, and social development at AfDB, commented after a panel discussion regarding the facility’s potential that action must be taken right away.
“What we are talking about today, is not just about policies; the impact of a thriving climate insurance industry in Africa is about lives.
“It is about an Africa that doesn’t just survive in climate uncertainties but thrives in them,” she concluded.