The Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMet) has committed to spend the sum of one billion Naira on the acquisition of equipment to provide a forecast for Nigeria’s maritime sector.
The Director-General of NiMet, Mansur Matazu, disclosed this to journalists in Abuja on Monday saying despite being under the purview of the Federal Ministry of Aviation, it has been given a mandate that extends its duties to the marine sector.
He noted that the northern part of the country was currently more vulnerable to high-intensity rainfall, as climate change had worsened the situation.
Mansur stated this during the African Swift Testbed-3 Workshop on Nowcasting and Users Co-production.
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“Recently, we rolled out our policy thrust, one of which was to expand services to non-aviation sectors. One of such critical sector is the marine sector.
“Nigeria has more than 800km stretch of coastline, with a lot of busy seas around us and shipping activities. So as part of our establishment Act, we were mandated to provide marine forecast for ocean going vessels.
“We need to do a lot of installations, especially on high sensitive instruments to monitor the weather conditions around the coasts. This is a very capital intensive programme that involves the purchase and installation of tidal gauge and other marine equipment.
“This is just the first phase and we are going to expand by next year. Also, I must state here that this is based on the huge support we are getting from the Federal Ministry of Aviation,” Matazu said.
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