Nigeria’s Foreign Oil Firms Spend $230M Annually On Off-Shore Met Services

• Only Aviation Pays For Meteorological Services-Reps

The Director-General of Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NIMET), Prof. Abubakar Sani Mashi has disclosed that international oil companies, (IOCs) spend over $230 million annually for Meteorological services from outside the country, stressing that NIMET has the capacity to provide same service the oil companies contract outside the country.

The NIMET DG while receiving the House Committee on Aviation in its oversight visit led by its chairman, Nnolim Nnaji to NIMET facilities in Abuja, however expressed sadness that the marine, water and agriculture sectors use its services extensively without paying for such services being rendered to them.

He sought the support of the National Assembly to enable NIMET expand its internally generated revenue (IGR) beyond aviation sector.

Responding, the Committee chairman assured that the current amendment Bill on NIMET would help expand the agency’s revenue base.

Nnaji regretted that despite the wide range of services NIMET offers to various sectors of the economy, only the aviation sector pays the agency for its services.

He stated that such a situation would no longer be tolerated if the agency must remain in business, adding that a lot of resources in terms of equipment and manpower were daily deployed by NIMET to give weather forecasts to marine, oil and gas ,construction industry, water resources and agriculture without returns.

The chairman however reassured the management of the agency that the current amendment Bill before the National Assembly when passed into law would empower the agency to collect revenues from all organisations that make use of its services.

He lauded the management for its forward looking initiatives which according to him had placed the agency on a global map as a leading  meteorological organization in Africa providing support services to several African countries..

Earlier, Mashi told the visiting legislators that the agency was rated among the best by the World Meteorological Organization, (WMO) adding that NIMET was the first African Meteorological Agency to scale through the International Standard Organization (ISO) standards this year despite the challenges of COVID-19.

He disclosed that NIMET offers technical supports services to several African countries including trainings for various category of professionals, adding that the agency’s pool of manpowers are world class professionals in Meteorological services.

Wole Shadare