NiMet DG lists obstacles militating against operational mandate
The Director General of the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMet), Prof Charles Anosike says, despite the limited resources available to the Agency, service quality has never been compromised, but constantly expanding the scope of services in line with NiMet’s establishment mandate.
In his welcome address at the stakeholders’ engagement forum with the theme ‘Early Warnings : Raising Awareness on Climate Risks and Promoting Early Action’ held in Lagos, Prof Anosike made a clarion call for support across various sectors to recover more costs and improve on overall service delivery.
He said the theme of the forum, “Early Warnings: Raising Awareness on Climate Risks and Promoting Early Action,” was carefully chosen to reflect the reality of the time we are living in and highlight the need to act. “It is no longer news that climate variability and change, leading to frequent extreme weather events, have increasingly threatened lives and livelihoods, and so, early warnings must not end with the forecast alone”
According to the NiMet boss, NiMet has remained committed to advancing the government’s efforts to mitigate the impact of climate change as well as improve food security, climate-smart sustainable development, and disaster risk reduction, through our various products and services, targeted at different sectors.
Professor Anosike noted that these efforts are often capital-intensive, and traditional government subvention alone can no longer sustain the growing demands of weather and climate services adding that NiMet is aiming to continue the transformation of the Agency’s scientific outputs into impactful services and sustainable revenue streams.
He said as part of the two-day forum, NiMet will be showcasing the Agency’s Applied Meteorological Services and Weather Forecasting Services, sharing activities, innovations, products and services, highlighting capacity to support various sectors.
“Our goal is to demonstrate how integrating NiMet’s products and services can effectively de-risk your operations and contribute to Nigeria’s collective socio-economic development. This we intend to achieve through Panel discussion sessions.
Most importantly, we want to hear from you, our stakeholders. How can we serve you better? Where do we need to improve? Your constructive criticisms of our work and the presentations we are going to share are welcome”
Prof Anosike explained that with the recent certification of Enugu airport brings the total ISO-certified airports to five, Lagos, Abuja, Kano, Port Harcourt, and Enugu while plans are underway to add more airports to the list.
NiMet boss said Digital Climate Advisory Services remained one of the key components of the Early Warning System (EWS) and Early Warnings for All (EW4All) drive.
“In line with the United Nations and WMO’s target of ensuring that everyone is covered by life-saving early warnings by 2027, NiMet is leveraging its partnership and collaboration to ensure that every Nigerian is covered by actionable weather and climate information”
According to NiMet boss, “In times of emergencies, we also provide location-specific forecasts in support of relief activities. It is important to note that our SCP serves as input to NIHSA’s Annual Flood Outlook and as a critical basis for NEMA’s Climate-Related Disaster Preparedness and Mitigation Strategies”
