Our Solution

Providing an affordable alternative

Zua’s solution is a microfinance alternative that drives development by providing low-income farmers with affordable insurance, enabling them to lift themselves out of poverty. Zua makes use of new technologies and peer-to-peer financing to provide invaluable financial services at heavily subsidized prices.

Subsidized Insurance? While subsidized insurance may raise some red flags, it is worth noting that weather-based index insurance eliminates the problems associated with moral hazard and adverse selection. By relying on objective measures, such as rainfall, to trigger claims, the provision of subsidized insurance becomes viable.

We are the world’s first insuring platform giving benefactors the ability to have a more meaningful and sustainable impact by providing aid in the form of insurance to low-income farmers in sub-Saharan Africa.

Unlike for-profit financial institutions, we provide coverage to Africa’s poorest at low cost by collecting financing from donors. Zua’s partnerships with local NGOs in Zambia allow our organization to garner trust within agricultural-based communities. Through these NGOs, we provide low-cost agricultural insurance to help protect farmers against risks associated with weather volatility.

How it works

Underwriting

Underwriters (that’s you!) donate the amount of a given insurance policy’s claim, effectively protecting a smallholder farmer against risk. If a claim under a policy is not filed (i.e. there are no droughts or floods), your donation will be used to insure an additional subsistence farmer under a new policy.

Claim payout

If rainfall levels are too low or too high, farmers will file claims through their mobile phones or through local NGOs. After the claims have been filed and it is determined that the rainfall levels did fall outside of the predetermined bands, then their claim amounts are delivered directly through mobile transfers or through local NGOs.

Zua as an intermediary

Zua’s partnerships with local NGOs allow us to garner trust within agricultural-based communities. Through the support of our partner organizations, we connect individual insurance providers (that’s you again!) to farmers in the developing world. Zua also accepts donations that are used to cover the costs of its operations.

Focused on impact, not profit

As a non-profit organization, Zua is able to focus on social impact rather than profit. We are an organization that enables people on one side of the world to personally insure the risks of low-income farmers on the other side of world. Not only does our microinsurance model help organically catalyze growth and development in these rural villages, but it enables donors to have a meaningful impact on and connection with their beneficiaries.

A tailored approach

Each of our projects is thoroughly vetted and tailored to the specific needs of farmers in varying communities. This means that in some cases we may couple our insurance offerings with microloans, and in others it may involve extensive agricultural or financial literacy training.

Microinsurance vs. microlending

Microlending, in the context of international development, is the issuing of small loans to poor people where traditional financing may not be available. These loans help support individuals’ small businesses.

Microinsurance addresses a problem bigger than access to capital. By enabling farmers to mitigate risk, not only is quality of life improved by increased certainty, but farmers also gain access to local credit that otherwise would not be available, as creditors are more willing to lend to those with insurance.