Fishermen’s Willingness To Pay For Insurance In The Western Region Of Ghana

ABSTRACT

Fishermen face a lot of risk and uncertainty in their fishing operations. One way of dealing with risks and uncertainties in the fishery sector is the adoption of insurance policy. Successful implementation of insurance scheme requires the need for demand analysis. This study therefore investigated fishermen’s willingness to pay for insurance in the Western Region of Ghana.

A three stage sampling procedure was used to select 300 fishers and a structured interview guide was used to elicit data from the respondents. The data collected from the fishermen were analyzed using descriptive statistics, linear regression and logistic regression model.

The study revealed that fishing activity in the study area is an occupation for men and is mainly operated by married and middle aged adults who have no formal or basic education. About 67.7% of the fishermen were willing to pay for fishery insurance to reduce risk. The mean willingness to pay for fishery insurance is GH¢160.86. The evidence from the study shows that age, years of education, average people on-board, wearing life belt/jacket, and own house were the positively significant variables influencing willingness to pay for fishery insurance. The significant variables influencing maximum amount fishers are willing to pay were age, group fishing and wearing of life belt / jacket. The study therefore recommends that fishermen be encouraged to form viable cooperatives to enable them access credit facilities, encouraging young people to engage in fishing, educating and creating safety precaution awareness as this will significantly influence willingness to pay for fishery insurance.