Tunisia: Govt launches Nat CAT disaster insurance fund
Source: Middle East Insurance Review | Dec 2019
Minister of agriculture, water resources and fisheries Samir Bettaieb has officially launched the Natural Disaster Damages Compensation Fund (Fidac). The fund will be managed by the Tunisian Mutual Agricultural Insurance Fund (Ctama).
The new fund is to provide compensation for damage caused by natural disasters for the agricultural and fisheries sectors, including damage caused by drought, flood, hail and storms, reported The Press.
Mr Bettaieb said the fund is much needed. He said, “The cost of agricultural losses in the last eight years amounts to TND345m ($122.7m). The total amount of aid granted by the state to compensate farmers is around TND131m, averaging at TND16.4m a year,” he said.
Speaking about how the fund is financed, Mr Bettaieb explained that there are three pillars of support: government subsidies of TND30m a year; income from a solidarity duty of 1% on a certain category of agricultural products; and subscriptions from members that are set at 2.5% of the cost of production or the value of the product declared.
The damage compensation ceiling is set at 60% of the cost of production or the value of the declared product.
Ctama CEO Lamjed Boukhris underlined the poor integration of the agricultural sector with the insurance market, which is at a much lower rate compared to other economic sectors. In this regard, he stressed the crucial role the new fund will play in opening up agriculture to the insurance sector. M
TND1 = $0.35