Africa offer insurance cover to agri-investors

PATIALA - African countries will provide insurance coverage to manufacturers of agricultural equipment if they invest in their countries, Zimbabwe’s Ambassador to India Jonathan Wutawunashe said here Saturday.

“We want to eliminate any possibility of risk in their investment. The proposed risk insurance would be covered by leading African banks including multilateral agency like the World Bank,” said Wutawunashe, who is also the dean of the Diplomatic Crops of Africa.

“The entire African continent has already struck agreement with the World bank for this purpose and also issued directives to African banks,” he said.

Wutawunahse was speaking at a conference on “Opportunities for Agriculture in Africa: Focus Punjab” here. Patiala is around 70 km from state capital Chandigarh.

Speaking on the occasion, Minister of State for External Affairs Preneet Kaur said that for farmers in Punjab, Africa can become a major export market in agriculture commodities.

“We will facilitate those interested. We will focus on capacity building in varied fields of agriculture through training, field visits of Indian agriculturists, consultancy and sharing of knowledge,” said Kaur.