President of the General Insurance Association of Barbados (GIAB) Randy Graham says while Government’s plan to introduce mandatory thirdparty insurance for boat owners in the fisheries sector was a step in the right direction, it might not be adequate protection in the event of another natural disaster.
He said the passage of Hurricane Beryl, which destroyed more than 200 boats, unearthed a significant funding gap for the sector.
“If you have all of the boat owners having vessels that they’ve either bought or built and investing in, if they don’t have insurance and they are trying to save their money in case something happens, what we’ve seen from Beryl is that there’s a funding gap. They do not have enough savings to rebuild all of these vessels. So you get a hurricane, you sustain damages, you are losing millions of dollars in boats,” Graham explained.
“If you don’t have the millions of dollars in savings, it creates a funding gap that somebody has to pay for. Somebody has to pay for that. I think this is what they are trying to address. Insurance is an option, but as we keep saying, more may be needed to bridge the gap,” he said. (CLM)
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