Livestock insurance with a tech edge
- Takaful insurance of Africa, set up by Hassan Bashir, a herder’s son in Kenya, is Africa’s first livestock insurance scheme which is compliant with Islamic law and is being touted as a fair and ethical way to protect pastoralists’ livestock assets from natural hazards.
- To assess payments, it uses index drawn by experts at the Nairobi-based International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), using satellites to measure vegetation coverage and thus the severity of drought. Payouts are made in line with the Islamic law with the help of Muslim scholars and number-crunching agricultural experts using NASA weather.
- In the Islamic concept of ‘Takaful’ risks are shared in the community and surplus money is distributed equally among remaining policy holders.
- Livestock which are a form of savings account for people of these regions and constantly threatened by droughts and famines, drives people to join this scheme. Payouts range from $7 for a premium of $5, to $720 to a premium of $940 bases of the assessments of the severity of drought in the respective regions. These payouts are used to restock animals, pay school fees or for daily domestic needs.
Exams Perspective:
- Livestock Insurance
- Savings Account
- Droughts
- Famines
- Satellite