Rwanda’s government is studying climate insurance to protect people who work in mines and quarries, the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning (MINECOFIN) announced in September 2026. The sector employs about 92,000 people, and many daily-paid workers lose income when rain or unstable ground forces work to stop.
It is parametric insurance: instead of requiring claims or proof of loss, it automatically pays a fixed amount when independently measured rainfall exceeds an agreed threshold. The data would come from the weather service Meteo Rwanda and be checked against satellite records.
At first, the insurance would cover the long rainy season from March to May. Enrolled workers at affected sites would receive equal payments, ideally within two weeks, via mobile money, a bank or a savings cooperative, with indicative amounts of 15,000 to 25,000 Rwandan francs per event. Premiums would be shared among workers, mining companies or cooperatives.
The scheme is still under assessment. Before any wider rollout, a supervised pilot is being considered, possibly within the National Bank of Rwanda’s regulatory sandbox, with support from the country’s mining authority.
