As part of efforts to strengthen its push to deliver the provisions of the Nigerian Local Content Development and Enforcement Act, the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMet) plans to drastically reduce the use of Meteorological Services from private service providers by its stakeholders mainly in the marine and oil and gas sector.
Director General of the Agency, Professor Mansur Bako matazu made this known in Lagos at a 2-Day NEEDS Assessment Workshop for Stakeholders in the Marine and Oil and Gas Sector where he said stakeholders will be enlightened of NiMet’s activities, relate with them and try to get what their needs are and provide them with assists to develop their sector.
On the reduction of foreign and private service providers in the maritime sector, he stressed that the prevailing practice where private and foreign companies give out and charge for meteorological information, if stopped, would improve on the country’s security and economy, and strengthen NiMet’s capacity tremendously.
Professor Matazu who was represented by Director, Weather Forecasting Services, Engineer Mailadi Yusuf while speaking on the services NiMet plans to put out said,â€Well, these services are basically meteorological marine services and presently most of the services are provided by foreign service providers and private providers, not necessarily foreign, some are Nigerian and we don’t know them but we know the service going on in those sectors someone is providing those services.
“We are trying to, by this workshop, show that we have the capacity and capability to actually give the same information that our stakeholders are taking from elsewhere. So, probably they are not aware that NiMet provides these services and through this workshop, we will enlighten them that these services are available in-house and you don’t have to go anywhere or any foreign meteorological agency to get this or go to any private sector person that would charge you exorbitant, that the Nigerian government has established NiMet to deliver those services,†he said.
On services being rendered, he highlighted Marine weather service for shipping companies that come into Nigeria waters saying that NiMet can easily handle that.
He said,â€Our dear Stakeholders, Ladies and Gentlemen, our clarion call to you is to understand what we do, and how we do it and assist us in doing it better in order to serve you more efficiently and improve the livelihoods and socio-economic prosperity of our dear nation, Nigeria.
“Our desire is to increase the uptake of our products and services within your domain and indeed by all Nigerians and reduce drastically the acquisition of such services from foreign providers, which is the prevailing practice, thus, improving on the country’s security and economy, and, strengthening the capacity of the Agency to deliver in line with the provisions of the Nigerian Local Content Development and Enforcement Act.â€
According to the NiMet Established Act 2022, it is law that NiMet alone shall be sole authority to prescribe and issue the meteorological information and data required for all sectoral activities in Nigeria including agriculture, aviation, defence, telecommunication, marine, transport, water resources, health and other sectors.
Speaking earlier in his welcome address, Professor Matazu said that the agency (NiMet) understands the growing needs and opportunities within the maritime sector stressing that as an agency, it has also grown in competencies, human and infrastructural development to meet these needs and explore the opportunities for the growth of the industry and improvement of the socio-economic development of the nation.
He stressed that NiMet’s efforts are geared towards better understanding of the relationship between weather and coastal activities with focus on how efficiently it can offer products and services in support of marine and every other coastal activity including safe operations of, ports and harbours, ocean-going vessels, fisheries, oil & gas exploration, energy, search & rescue, safety on our waters, tourism activities and more.
This meeting with the marine industry is coming barely months after a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed between NiMet and the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) with execution of projects in the Marine sector that will cost over two billion naira (N2b) within the next two years.