…Concludes MoU with NGF on meteorological/climatic data sharing
By Dwelleth Morountodun
The Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMet), has said that arrangement has been concluded to unveil the 2025 Seasonal Climatic/Rainfall Prediction (SCP) on February 4.
Meanwhile, the agency and the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF), have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to deepen in implementing climate-smart information and standard meteorological services in smart agriculture practices and disaster management and other areas of the economy.
Signing the MoU in Abuja recently, the Director General/CEO of NiMet, Prof. 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, Mr. Abdulateef 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’s information, we cannot fly. So this relationship is very critical for us” Anosike, said.
Continuing, Anosike, informed the NGF team that the 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”, Anosike concluded.
Responding, the DG of NGF 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.”
