Yemisi Izuora
The Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMet), and the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF), have entered a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) aimed at collaborating to assist the thirty-six (36) states of the federation in implementing climate-smart information and standard meteorological services in the areas of agriculture, telecommunications, marine, oil and gas, mining, aviation, disaster management and other areas of the economy.
During the signing in Abuja on Wednesday, 18th December 2024, the Director General and Chief Executive Officer of NiMet, Professor Charles Anosike thanked the governors of the 36 states, the Chairman of the Nigerian Governors’ Forum (NGF), Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq of Kwara state, the Director General of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum, Alhaji Abdulateef O.T. Shittu and the NGF team for the opportunity to strengthen the collaboration between NiMet and NGF.
“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.
Continuing, 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”, Prof. Anosike concluded.
Responding, the Director General of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum, Alhaji Abdulateef O.T. Shittu said that 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.