By Stella Omona

Copyright independent

Stella Omona

The Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMet) has sought the collaboration of stakeholders on early warning action and improved service delivery on climate change risk reduction.

The Director General of Nimet, Dr Charles Anosike said this during the 2025 stakeholders’ forum with the theme; “Early Warnings: Raising Awareness on Climate Risks and Promoting Early Action,” in Lagos on Wednesday where he also canvassed the support of stakeholders to strengthen early warning and action to boost climate risk awareness to reduce climate-related disasters.

He stressed agency’s commitment in deseminating timely and accurate weather information.

“This Forum is aimed at creating a platform for us to share our progress, collaborate, raise awareness, listen to your feedback, co-create solutions and act towards building a climate-resilient Nigeria.”

He also called for continued investment in weather information dissemination services, saying stakeholders must cooperate to ensure effective cost recovery exercise of the Agency.

“Sustaining these services requires continuous investments. In addition to the Federal Government support through budget allocations, the Agency has relied primarily on cost recovery for sustainability and despite the limited resources available to the Agency, service quality has never been compromised, and we are constantly expanding the scope of our services in line with NiMet’s establishment mandate.

“Hence, a clarion call for support across various sectors to recover more costs and improve on our overall service delivery.”, he said

The NiNet boss recalled, the theme the forum was carefully chosen to reflect the reality of the time as it highlights the need to act as climate variability and change has continued to led to frequent extreme weather events, which have increasingly threatened lives and livelihoods.

“And so, early warnings must not end with the forecast alone, they must inspire understanding and drive decisive action. This is why your presence, active participation and engagement in this forum are very critical.”

He noted that NiMet has remained committed to advancing the government’s efforts to mitigate the impact of climate change as well as improve food security, climate-smart sustainable development, and disaster risk reduction, through it’s various products and services, targeted at different sectors.

“These efforts are often capital-intensive, and traditional government subvention alone can no longer sustain the growing demands of weather and climate services. As such, we are aiming to continue the transformation of the Agency’s scientific outputs into impactful services and sustainable revenue streams. We are working with our existing partners, but we also hope to bring in more active partners by the end of this forum.”, he added.

He explained that the agency serves all socioeconomic sectors by “observing, collating, processing, and disseminating weather and climate information for the safety of lives and property as well as sustainable development.”

Anosike noted with the essential weather data supporting flight safety and operational efficiency, NiMet has gone digital with tools like the Electronic Flight Folder, offering virtual flight briefings.

According to him, Nimet has also achieved ISO certification for five airports, including Lagos and Abuja, aiming to expand the list.

He further revealed that NiMet has collaborated with national agencies like National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) and Nigerian Maritime Administration Safety Agency (NIMASA) to mitigate weather-related disasters and support sustainable growth in the marine and blue economy sectors.

“We are partnering with the Nigeria Hydrological ServicesAgency (NIHSA), the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) and otherorganisations to mitigate the impact of weather and climate-related disasters. TheAgency has many products targeted at this sector, including the Seasonal ClimatePrediction (SCP), impact-based forecasts, heavy rainfall forecasts, daily forecasts &weather bulletins. In times of emergencies..

“We also provide location-specific forecastsin support of relief activities. It is important to note that our SCP serves as input toNIHSA’s Annual Flood Outlook and as a critical basis for NEMA’s Climate-RelatedDisaster Preparedness and Mitigation Strategies.

Anosike further disclosed that transformative upgrades including multi-model forecasting, in-house technology Meteowiz for real-time data transmission, and new meteorological equipment have been provided through partnerships and government support.