The Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMet) is one of Nigeria’s most critical agencies. NiMet delivers globally acceptable weather advisories and its’ forecasts are saving farmers, airlines, and other stakeholders billions of naira in losses, the Director-General Prof .Mansur Matazu said in an interview. NiMet DG also spoke to the innovations and transformation at NiMet, among others. Except.
You recently clocked two years in office as the DG NiMet. How has the journey been?
Indeed, I have done two years as the CEO of NiMet but this is also my eighth year at NiMet. I worked as General Manager of Research before being appointed Director-General. One can say it has been an experience of ups and downs. In 2020 we passed through COVID which really impacted the operations in aviation and has led to reduced revenue for the aviation agencies and not only NiMet. Secondly, it has been rewarding because as a staff of NiMet I had contributed my ideas from my directorate to the agency’s activities. But as a CEO directing affairs, I have the opportunity to realize my dreams on NiMet. Also, a combination of my university experience in teaching metrology and taking part in operations has been quite rewarding. Also, taking the operations to the users in the last mile has also been challenging but with the advent of the nine-policy thrust we have developed which is part pf the aviation roadmap from the Federal Ministry of Aviation, it has been quite rewarding implanting it. It has also metamorphosed into our programmers and activities. Within the last two years, we have tried as much as possible to bring NiMet into the limelight and in full gear. We have been able to reach all the strata of society cutting across all the sectors of the economy through simplified and user-friendly products and services, and we have been getting commendations and request for tailored products and services. We just had a meeting with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), we have also met with the Nigerian Ports Authority have previously signed an MoU with NIMASA. In the last two years, we have signed improved services in weather and climate. I am happy to announce that one forecast that we provided to a sector has saved Nigeria N120bn. The CBN informed us that by heeding to our advisory in 2022 on flood prediction in the country, they withdrew their initial intent in providing about N120bn loan support to farmers in those locations. The funds would have been wasted as the farms would have been flooded away. This is the reason why they approached us for a partnership. This is what we usually tell our stakeholders; that they should consider our services beyond the revenue we generate because that avoidable cost of N120bn should be added as an aviation sector contribution to the GDP in 2022. We are very happy with this. Also, the last two years have been challenging in maintaining operations. We are present in more than 100 locations. We are present at all the airports, all the seaports, and all the states. In some states, we have three offices. We are running two schools, one in the north and the other in the south. With the support of the staff, we have faired well and we have adopted a bottom-top approach in decision making and everyone is feeling ownership and carried along. This is the secrete to our success in the last two years. I don’t want to blow all the trumpets, it’s left for the public to assess us. But we have made significant improvements from basic services to advance services. We are considered the best Met Services in Africa. It takes a lot of effort and collaboration to achieve that.
What are your targets in the next three years?
In the tenure of five years, I have spent two years so I’m almost halfway. In my vision, I see NiMet as one of the best agencies going beyond the aviation industry in the next three years because our services cut across all sectors. We are already doing this and we are getting commendations. So, I see NiMet helping the economy in all ramifications and providing more tailored services. We also want to see Nigerians becoming more weather-wise by integrating weather into our daily activities. Nigeria will be attaining a great position in climate mitigation and adaptation. We published local indicators of climate change in Nigeria which covers all the Eco Climatic Zones. We will love to see NiMet services impacting positively on the well-being of Nigerians. We also got our Law repealed, signed, and gazetted. This is also impacting our services. Also, our human resources are critical. We have worked and improved the conditions of service for staff. We have also introduced mentoring culture where the senior staff trains the junior staff, we have also created an open process which staff has access. As a CEO, I still go and interact with messengers and cleaners to understand what they feel and get inputs from them on how we can improve. This has increased productivity. We have also improved the work environment experience by renovating our offices at the headquarters and across the country. This have created unity among the staff and the union.
Beyond the testimony from the CBN, what are the ordinary farmers and other users saying about the impacts of your products?
If you recall, the Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika unveiled our annual Seasonal Climate Forecast on the 23rd of January 2023 in Abuja. We invited farmers and users of our forecast from the six geopolitical zones. Without talking to them. They gave their testimony on how the NiMet forecasts helped them save costs and maximize profits. All users, farmers, and water resources managers. Early warning practitioners, climate change agents, and agric extension workers. From our statistical records around the impacts on our forecasts, especially on farming, farmers are beginning to get improvements in yield by about 30 to 45 percent. Also, a reduction of loss by extreme weather by more than 90 percent. For early warnings, it has been established by United Nations that if you invest N1 in early warning, you will save about N8, which comes in damages mitigation. We have seen what the CBN is reporting and heeding our advice has saved them more than N120bn. We have seen a lot of damages recorded in 2022 simply because our forecast wasn’t fully integrated into action plans, especially at the state and local government. So NEMA and the World Bank did research and the loss is colossal. We are getting a lot of positive reviews as to the impacts of our focus. One thing we do is also involved in users in the co-generation of the forecast. We normally invite stakeholders from all the sectors – Agric, water resources, environment, health, early warning and for them to interpret the forecast as it relates to them. For this, they take ownership and also generate instant feedback.
You have signed several MoUs but the one with NIMASA is worthy of note. What value would this MoU with NIMASA bring?
Nigeria is not a landlocked country so we have a border with the Gulf of Guinea, which is the Southern Atlantic Ocean and it is a stretch of over 800km. strategically, NiMet installed eight stations in major ports around the coastline. We installed the necessary equipment including ocean buoy, and automatic weather stations for marine, and we also offer sea surface temperature, and other vital parameters of interest. Nigeria is a major importer nation so we have a lot of ship liners that come to this country. They get weather services in other parts of the world but with this MoU, going forward, NiMet should be able to provide these services. We signed the MoU in 2021 with NIMASA and we hope to provide tailored services to the maritime sector through the NIMASA as we do for aviation. We set up a technical team and came up with a work plan. We are already providing basic services to the maritime for the past six months and these services have been confirmed to be effective and useful. We provide services to about 15 nautical miles on Nigerian waters and we hope that by the second quarter of this year, NiMet will be providing full services to that sector. By doing this for NIMASA, we will also be fulfilling part of our international obligation by IMO and WMO, to which Nigeria is a signatory.
The MoU we have signed with the CBN should benefit about 20 million farmers too. We also call on other agencies like NNPC Limited and any agency interested in tailored services to also approach NiMet as there are benefits,
What new products have you introduced at NiMet that are adding significant value beyond the existing products?
What I met on the ground were products and services which were basic. We have adopted the WMO model on the impact-based forecast. Previously we just provide forecasts and predictions to users and tell them that it will rain, the temperature will be this, there will be wind in certain directions, there will be cold, heatwave etc. but we now go beyond these forecasts and tell the users and the public what exactly the weather will do. We say the impacts will be positive or negative and we give the necessary advice. So, our Seasonal Climate Predictions, Climate and Health Bulletins, Marine Bulletins, Agromet Bulletin, are impact based. We have also translated the SCP into Hausa, Ibo, and Yoruba. We are in the process of translating into Pidgin English and we are ready to partner anyone to translate into other local dialects in any part of this country. This impact-based forecast has generated and provoked interest in our services. This is making us introduce tailored products for health, all types of agriculture value chains, transportation etc, In developing these products, we engage users from beginning to end. We also do a lot of partnerships with MDAs, NGOs, development partners etc which has saved NiMet costs and improved our service delivery.
What’s your plan for infrastructure upgrade at NiMe?t
One of our policy thrusts is improving and upgrading the weather observation infrastructure. This is beyond the equipment; you also need to make the office conducive. The headquarters was more than one decade old and was degrading. We had to make it look more modern. We have also touched on all aspects of our operations. Even though our salaries within the aviation sector is much lower, we are working on improving through our parent ministry and other relevant MDAs. Improving infrastructure is critical because some of the buildings are over 50 years old so we needed to upgrade them.
