Price and Sell Climate Risk Insurance for African MSMEs

An estimated 80% of economic losses from climate events in Africa are uninsured. For MSMEs — a restaurant destroyed in a flash flood, a market stall lost in a landslide — the loss is total and unrecoverable. Conventional property insurance excludes or underprices climate perils. Parametric products exist for agriculture but not for MSMEs. The gap is a design problem, not a data problem. Your challenge is to design a climate risk insurance product for African MSMEs with annual revenue between $10,000 and $500,000. It must cover at least two climate perils (flooding, drought, extreme heat, or wildfire), use satellite and weather data to trigger or support claims, and price premiums competitively against the historical loss data in your target region. The product must be distributable digitally without physical agents. Submit a product design document (max 12 pages) including: the two climate perils covered, the trigger or loss assessment methodology, premium pricing model with the actuarial basis, the digital distribution channel, regulatory approach in one target market, and a plan to sell 1,000 policies in the first 12 months. Judging criteria: 40% actuarial and technical credibility, 30% trigger methodology, 20% digital distribution design, 10% regulatory approach.