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Johannesburg, South Africa, 18 January 2018
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IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, today announced a grant extension to Mayfair Insurance Company Zambia Limited, to support Mayfair in scaling up its weather-based index insurance product line in Zambia. The additional performance-based grant, awarded through the Global Index Insurance Facility, is expected to help Mayfair reach an additional 300,000 farmers by December 2019.
Smallholder farmers in Zambia are vulnerable to weather-related shocks such as drought, flooding, and irregular rainfall. Insurance can be a good risk management tool for these farmers, but the traditional insurance market largely fails to meet their demand for affordable insurance. Index insurance provides an innovative and more efficient solution for them to protect their crops against losses and encourage investment.
The Zambian government has recently awarded Mayfair a contract to offer weather-based index insurance to farmers who benefit from government input subsidies. The additional funding provided through the IFC grant will enable Mayfair to successfully carry out the government contract and reach a total of 400,000 farmers in Zambia, including those reached through the grant extension.
Alejandro Alvarez de la Campa, Practice Manager for the World Bank Group’s Finance, Competitiveness, and Innovation Global Practice, Africa region, said, “We anticipate that in the medium to long term, over one million smallholder farmers in Zambia will benefit from the combined input subsidy and insurance package offered by the government and Mayfair. This will improve the farmers’ resilience to weather-related shocks and improve sustainable farming opportunities in Zambia.”
The grant agreement provides funding by the Netherlands through IFC’s Global Index Insurance Facility, and ends in December 2019.
About Global Index Insurance Facility
The Global Index Insurance Facility (GIIF) is a multi-donor trust fund that works to provide access to finance to smallholder farmers, microentrepreneurs, and microfinance institutions through the development and growth of local markets for indexed and catastrophic insurance in developing countries. It is supported by the European Commission; the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Group of States; Governments of the Netherlands and Japan. The facility is part of the World Bank Group’s Finance, Competitiveness, and Innovation Global Practice. For more information, visit
www.indexinsuranceforum.org
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About Mayfair
Mayfair Insurance Company Zambia Limited is a General Insurance Company which began accepting business in July 2010 having been duly registered and licensed by the Pensions and Insurance Authority in the same year. The company is a subsidiary of Mayfair Insurance Company Limited of Kenya which has continued to run a successful business in the highly competitive Kenyan market. Mayfair Insurance Company Zambia Limited will continue to strengthen itself as a leading general insurance provider and will ensure its own growth in the Zambian economy. The company is adequately capitalized and has continued to grow its capital base to enhance its already highly competitive position.
About IFC
IFC, a sister organization of the World Bank and a member of the World Bank Group, is the largest global development institution focused on the private sector in emerging markets. Working with more than 2,000 businesses worldwide, we use our capital, expertise, and influence to create markets and opportunities in the toughest areas of the world. In FY17, we delivered a record $19.3 billion in long-term financing for developing countries, leveraging the power of the private sector to help end poverty and boost shared prosperity. For more information, visit
www.ifc.org
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