Nigeria to help other African nations in aviation, says Sirika

Minister of Aviation, Senator Hadi Sirika, has reiterated the readiness of the Federal Government to offer appropriate technical support to African countries for the development of their aviation sectors.

He disclosed this in a keynote address at the inaugural graduation ceremony of the Gambian Middle level Meteorological Technicians trained through a partnership between the Government of The Gambia and the Federal Government of Nigeria, held at the Department of Water Resources Training School, Banjul International Airport, Yundum, The Gambia, at the weekend.

According to him, Nigeria has over the years developed huge capacities in several areas of the Aviation sector, including Meteorological and Hydrological Services and is ready to deploy such for the development of the Aviation sectors of African countries.

While noting that the entire global workforce in the National Meteorological and Hydrological Services of the 193 World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) members including The Gambia and Nigeria is estimated to be more than 300,000, Sirika revealed that only about half of the 193 members have educational infrastructure that can address some of the specific/tailored training needs of Meteorological and Hydrological Services.

Sirika disclosed that the WMO encourages members to close this gap through increased cooperation and collaborative partnership such as the one between Nigeria and The Gambia, adding that one of the instruments of the partnership is through the WMO Regional Training Centres (RTCs) and affiliated training institutes.

“RTC Nigeria has evolved over the years. It began in 1957 as a National Meteorological Training School in Lagos, Nigeria, to train Class IV Meteorological Technicians while in 1964, a Regional Meteorological Training Centre (RMTC) was established, also in Lagos, Nigeria, to train Class III and Class II Meteorological Technicians.

By 1975, both training Centres were merged and designated as Meteorological Research and Training Institute (MRTI) to train Classes IV, III and II which is now referred to as the Basic Instructional Package for Meteorological Technicians (BIP-MT).

In 1994, the Department of Meteorology (now Department of Meteorology and Climate Science) at the Federal University of Technology, Akure, Ondo State, Nigeria was also designated as the University component of the RMTC in Nigeria and recognized as the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) Regional Training Centre for the West African Countries’ sub-region.

This RTC is under the auspices of Nigerian Meteorological Agency and statutorily funded by it and is responsible for the training of Meteorological Personnel from Nigeria, English speaking West African countries, and other African countries.

To cater for the increasing training needs and space for physical expansion, under my administration as the Minister Responsible for Meteorology in Nigeria, a new training school was officially commissioned in Katsina, Nigeria in May 2019 by me.

Currently, the process is ongoing for the designation of the National Water Resources Institute, Kaduna, Nigeria as a WMO RTC for operational Hydrology.

This is to emphasise the presence of capacities in Nigeria to meet the training demands of the continent,” the Aviation minister stated.

He further disclosed that to ensure quality of training content and service delivery by the WMO RTC in Nigeria, the Nigerian Meteorological Agency under his supervision, subjected the centre to the WMO review between 2016 and 2018, adding that the result is a re-confirmation of the RTC by WMO in 2019.

“The RTC already acquired Quality Management System (QMS) International Standard Organisation (ISO) 29990:2010 certification for training services in August 2019, making Nigeria the first and only country in Africa so far with the certification.

The RTC Quality Policy is committed to training well qualified and efficient manpower for National Meteorological Services and Allied Services for West African Sub-region and Africa in general”.

He assured the people of The Gambia that the quality of training the Middle level Meteorological Technicians received through this partnership is never in doubt.

Sirika urged the graduates of the Middle Level Meteorological Technicians course to “bring their newly acquired skills to bear in the discharge of their duties, and ensure knowledge is transferred to other colleagues in your various work places”.

Speaking also at the ceremony, Hon. James Furmus Peter Gomez, Minister, Ministry of Fisheries and Water Resources, The Gambia, commended Senator Sirika for gracing the occasion, adding that his presence at the graduation ceremony has further strengthened the cordial and fruitful bilateral ties that exist between the Department of Water Resources and the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMet) and by extension between our two countries.

“On behalf of the Government and People of the Republic of The Gambia, I once again extend our sincere appreciation and gratitude to the Government of Federal Republic of Nigeria for the bi-lateral assistance it has been rendering in many ways to help improve the standard of the Meteorological services in The Gambia.

We particularly note the efforts you have been making towards the capacity development of our personnel in fundamental aspects of meteorological observations and forecasting, as well as quality management system, all geared towards meeting the standard set by World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO),” Gomez said.