…DG advocates adoption of weather information for development
By Hillary Asemota
The Director-General/CEO of the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMet) Prof. Mansur Bako Matazu, has stated that NiMet’s products and services are holistically tailored especially toward mitigating natural disasters even as he said the services tremendously contribute to poverty reduction among the citizenry.
According to him, adopting, implementation and utilisation of weather and climate information for national planning is one amongst the several solutions to achieving the objectives of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
The NiMet boss, who was the keynote speaker at the 61st Annual Conference of the Association of Nigerian Geographers, which held at the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife, Osun State, made a presentation with the theme: Providing weather and climate information towards the achievement of the SDGs in the country.
The General Manager in charge of Public Relations, of the Agency, Mr. Muntari Yusuf Ibrahim, in a statement made available to the media, quoted the DG, as saying: “Virtually all the NiMet’s products and services are geared towards mitigating disasters especially the weather-induced components of it. “NiMet’s services cut across almost all the socio-economic sectors of our economy and are aimed at generating climate-smart decision-making which in turn contributes to the reduction of poverty among the citizenry.
“Our range of products either directly or as inputs by other, stakeholders, example in agriculture, maritime, health, water resources, disaster management amongst others (if quantified in financial terms) are catalysts for socio-economic benefits.”
He stressed that NiMet also engages stakeholders in the agricultural sector, explaining that the big part of the agency’s Seasonal Rainfall Prediction (SRP) is focused on agriculture for food security and sustainable development.
The Agency, he said carries out downscaling activities where forecasts for the agricultural sector are cascaded to the last mile through Roving seminars, Workshops and Field operations.
In a remark, the President of the Association, Prof. Adamu Tanko, pointed out that the theme of the programme: Geography for SDGs, was strategically chosen as it aims to showcase how the study of the environment, which is the business of geography facilitates as well as accelerate the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals particularly in Nigeria