Africa-Press – Tanzania. CRDB Bank and National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF) have teamed up in their efforts to expand health insurance cover to farmers, a large group that is sidelined in health protection.
The data shows that by December 2019, NHIF membership coverage was close to 5.0 million beneficiaries of which only 7,000 were farmers who had direct health cover under cooperative unions. Cognizant with the fact, CRDB and NHIF have teamed up to increase the number of farmers to health insurance cover to 300,000 in this farming season under ‘Ushirika Afya Premium Loan with no interest and charges.
CRDB Group CEO and Managing Director Abdulmajid Nsekela said farmers are making 70 per cent of the population, a factor that prompted the banking institution and the insurance Fund to take the matter seriously.
“This is a very important group where 40 per cent of our loan book goes …we want farmers to conduct agri-activities while being assured of good health,” Mr Nsekela said.
He said the bank will start providing health covers to farmers who are growing coffee, tea, cashew nut, tobacco and sugar cane through their cooperative unions— Agricultural Marketing Co-operative Societies (AMCOS).
“Later we will include other crops and non-agricultural cooperative unions,” Mr Nsekela told journalists yesterday during the soft ceremony to pen down the deal. CRDB said farmers engaging in the five key crops will only need to open an account with the lender to become a cooperative union member.
Then the bank will pay for the insurance health cover in advance for the beneficiaries who will pay after selling the crops.
“This is not a loan. Rather the bank will pay in advance to enable the farmers obtain insurance services with neither further charges nor interest rate,” the CEO said.
The health package system is a great solution for every farmer to provide for his household with medical assurance at any time,” he said. The NHIF beneficiaries in a family set-up include the contributing member, his or her spouse and up to four legal dependents who will pay 355,200/- per year.
For extra adult defendant 76,800/- will be topped up while for a child 50,400/- will be added per year. NHIF Director General Bernard Kongwa said Ushirika Afya initiative started over two years ago at a slow pace due to challenges to reach farmers but with CRDB they’ve widened their outreach.
“We work out the challenges and under this tripartite partnership (CRDB, NHIF and TCDC) we envisage to reach more farmers,” Kongwa said. He said the beneficiaries will access all medical services starting from dispensaries to referral hospitals across the country.
Though the partnership is between CRDB and NHIF, Tanzania Cooperative Development Commission (TCDC) will be the agreement observer. The Registrar of Cooperative Dr Benson Ndiege said the move has come timely since extending health cover to farmers attached a paramount importance in the country.
