- How Air Peace instigates airlines to hike fares, Commission cautions carrier against obstructing inquiry
- NSIB Probe: How Fly Bird’s HS 125 lost two engines in incident
- United Marks Five Years of Non-Stop Flights Between Cape Town and New York/Newark
- Kuku’s ‘Operation AirClean’ to stop bad practices at airports, says Dati
- FAAN, security agencies collaborate to tackle touting, passengers’ harassment at Lagos airport
16 African nations benefit from NiMet’s capacity building on early warning systems
The Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMet) has begun the training of 17 participants from 16 nations on the Early Warning System at the organisation’s Regional Training Centre (RTC). This is in collaboration with the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO).
Opening the two-week program, Director General Professor Mansur Bako Matazu emphasized the theme “Early Warning for All,” targeting meteorologists and climate scientists across the sub-region.
The NiMet DG expressed his joy for the capacity building, particularly in the West African sub-region, adding that recent years had seen significant increases in the frequency and intensity of extreme weather and climate events globally, often leading to huge destruction of properties and loss of lives.
These extreme events he stated were linked to the changing climate, which the world is still grappling with ways to mitigate and provide effective adaptation mechanisms.
Holding at NiMet Regional Headquarters from December 11th to 22nd, the training brings together participants from Benin, Burkina Faso, and Cameroon. Others are from Central Africa Republic, Congo, Côte d’Ivoire, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Togo, and Gabon.
Represented by Director Daniel Okafor, the DG highlighted that the training fosters synergy for measuring, reporting, predicting, and monitoring impending extreme weather events.
He emphasized the global nature of weather, urging nations to collaborate proactively to combat climate change’s negative impacts by providing actionable services.
The workshop’s goal is to enhance participants’ capacity to predict and respond to weather-related hazards, empowering them to implement early warning systems upon returning to their respective bases.
In an interview, Director Daniel Okafor praised Nigeria’s efforts to disseminate meteorological information beyond the elite, ensuring it reaches grassroots levels.
He affirmed NiMet’s collaboration with agencies like the National Emergency Management Agency, emphasizing their role in acting upon provided information.
Director of Research and Training, Professor Effiong Okoh, clarified that the training’s objective is to enhance capacity.
“It is against this backdrop, that the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) and the NiMet have enjoined forces to organize this workshop. The workshop targets meteorologists and climate scientists across the sub-region, focusing on capacity building, knowledge exchange, collaboration, and skill acquisition to develop competencies for realizing the goal of EW4ALL”.
Similarly, he said the training focuses on making the Early Warning System accessible to non-technical individuals through simple language.
The United Nations, recognizing the key role of WMO in creating and sustaining climate-resilient societies across the globe, is spearheading a new action to ensure that every person on earth is protected by Early Warning Systems by the year 2027, hence the Early Warning for All (EW4ALL).
Google+