The Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMet),has said it would be collaborating with the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF)in implementing climate-smart information and standard meteorological services across the country.
The Director General and Chief Executive Officer of NiMet, Professor Charles Anosike while signing the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on Wednesday in Abuja said, their services will be in the areas of agriculture, telecommunications, marine, oil and gas, mining, aviation, disaster management and other areas of the economy.
He thanked the Chairman of NGF, Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq of Kwara state, the Director General of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum, Alhaji Abdulateef Shittu and the entire team for the opportunity to strengthen the collaboration between NiMet and the forum.
“This is a piece of the puzzle that we’ve been trying to solve. For us to be able to scale up access to weather information, not just to farmers, but also to help us manage our state airports. Without NiMet information, we cannot fly. So this relationship is very critical for us”, Prof. Anosike said.
Professor Anosike informed the NGF team that the Honourable Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo SAN, has approved the date for the public presentation of the 2025 NiMet Seasonal Climate Prediction (SCP).
“The 2025 NiMet SCP will be unveiled on Tuesday 4th February 2025. NiMet cannot implement the downscaling without the support of the state governments. Signing this MoU is a milestone for us and we thank the NGF team for this opportunity”,he said.
Responding, the Director General of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum, said it was a good thing that both agencies are signing a formal MoU although they have had a 10-year-old relationship.
“NiMet is doing a good job. We still have in our libraries NiMet’s forecasts dating back to 10 years ago. We are delighted with the signing of this MoU because of what we will be able to do jointly for Nigeria and our communities in the states.
“The MoU NiMet and NGF will collaborate in providing meteorological and climatological data as it relates to the agricultural environment and activities or any area of meteorology for the development of climate change indices and impact in the 36 states of the federation”, Alhaji Shittu said.
