Professor Mansur Bako Matazu, The Director General/CEO of the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMet) And Nigeria’s Permanent Representative with the World Meteorological Organisation has decried the poor funding of meteorological intercurred in Nigeria.
Prof. Matazu called for more private public partnerships in infrastructure delivery in the industry.
He also decried the poor remuneration of the NiMet workers in the face of rsing cost of living and inflation.
He spoke at the 1st French-Nigeria Meteorological Seminar & Business Meetings, On The 13th & 14th Of November 2023 in Abuja.
“As we all know, the world economies are struggling due to various challenges around the globe, including natural and man-made disasters, and the fact that most countries are yet to stabilize due to the devastating covid experience. Similarly, the cost of conducting meteorological business is also increasing amidst staff attritions due to inadequate remuneration and many others” NiMet DG noted.
He thus said the “government funding of meteorological activities such as instrumentation, new technologies, equipment, welfare, communication, and data exchange are grossly inadequate. It is therefore imperative that Public Private Partnership must be embraced and explored.”
“As a Service Provider, my Agency, the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMet) in line with its establishment mandate continues to promote and implement activities in support of national socio-economic development across all sectors of the Nigerian economy” Prof. Matazu noted.
“Successful sustenance of these products and services amidst the economic situations and the need to adequately ensure the purpose of the United Nations Early Warning for All initiative is achieved, make it more critical for the adoption of available credible Public Private Partnerships and Engagements that will provide innovative and cost-effective technological solutions that will proffer ease of doing business for maximum impacts” he stated
He informed that NiMet provides round-the-clock weather information that is critical for aviation operations and development as many must have consumed our service in make it to this workshop.
The Agency also develops various products and services that are reliable, accurate, timely, and actionable. Such as the Seasonal Climate Prediction (SCP), an Early Warning tool, which highlights vital Weather and Climate information that may affect socio-economic activities in air, land, and water transportation, agriculture, water resources, disaster management and mitigation, health, tourism, sports, power & energy, etc.
Other products include Marine inshore and offshore forecasts, public weather forecasts, Impact-based weather forecasts, Heavy rainfall forecasts and many more.
