This study examines the willingness of canoe owners and crew members to participate in an insurance scheme in Ghana. A total of 386 canoe owners and 164 crew from four (4) coastal regions and the inland lake areas were sampled. Data was collected through semi-structured questionnaires on socio-economic characteristics, canoe characteristics, attitude at sea, assets, income, type of insurance, willingness to participate in insurance schemes, emergency coping mechanism and disasters encountered. A logit model was used to identify factors most likely to affect willingness to pay on group life insurance for crew.

The study reveals that most canoe owners and crew members who go to sea adopt some safety measures such as informing their families, listening to weather forecast and carrying mobile phones. Very few go to fishing in groups, use life jacket and compasses for navigation. Also, some respondents are involved in National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS).
Results suggest that most of the respondents are willing to participate as well as pay for group life, personal life, family insurance, fishing gears and pension schemes. The factors that most strongly affect WTP for group insurance of crew are family size, number of dependents, experience of fishing, whether canoe owners have ever been involved in insurance, listening to weather forecast before going fishing and ownership of a car. In conclusion, the study shows that majority of respondents are willing to participate in the various insurance schemes including group and life.