Leadway Assurance Company Limited has partnered with the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) on a $399,900 grant initiative to support smallholder farmers in Nigeria. The three-year project, set to run from March 2025 to March 2028, aims to improve the climate resilience of 21,000 farmers across Kaduna, Nasarawa, and Niger States through a mix of financial tools and insurance solutions.
The project is titled Building Farmers’ Resilience through Innovative Insurance Models and Financial Instruments and directly addresses the growing climate risks threatening food production in Nigeria. Erratic rainfall, long dry seasons, extreme temperatures, and crop failures have increased, leaving many farmers vulnerable and placing the country’s food systems at risk.
To help farmers manage these challenges, Leadway is introducing an insurance model called “Pay at Harvest.” This model allows farmers to pay their insurance premiums after harvesting their crops, when they’re more likely to have cash available. This reduces the financial strain of traditional insurance and encourages wider adoption among rural farmers. It also helps farmers access credit, buy quality farm inputs, and sell their produce more confidently, knowing they are protected from weather-related losses.
This initiative builds on Leadway’s previous work with Heifer International, where over 60,000 farmers benefited from the same model. The new AGRA-backed project includes even more support, such as connections to buyers and markets, access to farming advice and climate-smart techniques, digital land mapping for better tracking, early warnings for extreme weather, and training on financial literacy and sustainable farming. It also aims to bring in more private and public partnerships to unlock green climate finance for agricultural insurance.
Through this collaboration, Leadway Assurance and AGRA are making it easier for farmers to stay productive, earn more, and adapt to the impacts of climate change—all while promoting long-term sustainability in Nigeria’s agricultural sector.
