The supervising Minister of Aviation, Dr. Samuel Ortom, has commended the federal government for increasing funds to boost technological infrastructure and manpower at the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NIMET) to meet international standards.
Ortom who stated this in Abuja at the 2014 NIMET rainfall prediction said such funding had helped the agency to get accurate weather forecast for the country.
“The provision of accurate and timely information on weather conditions in Nigeria has become very critical to reducing weather and climate disasters and loses.
“The federal government has therefore taken a number of steps, among them the provision of modern equipment and infrastructure for weather observation and forecasting to NIMET,” he added.
Ortom said there was the need for “decisive and collective action to reduce the vulnerability of Nigerians to the hazards of severe weather.”
In his response, the director general of NIMET, Dr. Anthony Anuforom, who acknowledged the various investments by the government in the agency, however said the greater part of the problem was exemplified in the low level of literacy amongst Nigerians as regard appreciating and utilising weather information supplied by NIMET.
“NIMET is alive to its responsibilities of providing early warning on weather, but the information sadly does not penetrate to the vulnerable communities,” Anuforom said.
“There is a weak link in communicating early science-based climate warning information to farmers, and vulnerable rural communities which needs to be strengthened. This is the challenge; not just for the government, but to every one of us,” he added.
He said weather affects all aspects of human life and socio-economic activities and therefore accurate and timely meteorological information was vital for planning and decision making, particularly in those economic sectors that are most sensitive to weather and climate.
He listed such sectors to include: agriculture and food security; transportation by air, road and water; construction and infrastructure development; health; power generation; environmental management and tourism.
