NiMet invests N1bn on marine weather services

The Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMet) has said it is investing over N1bn to tap into the vast economic opportunities available in the marine weather forecast space that has been dominated by foreign weather service providers.

NiMet said it is deploying the right facilities to provide tailor-made services to shippers in Nigerian waters as it moves to activate its legal right to provide highly lucrative maritime weather forecasts.

There are no official statistics as to how much Nigeria is losing to foreign weather service providers in her territorial waters, but NiMet said it is in billions of naira annually.

The NiMet DirectorGeneral/CEO, Prof. Mansur Bako Matazu, who spoke in Abuja, said in the next six months, NiMet should begin providing services to ships within Nigerian water space.

Prof. Matazu spoke at the sideline of the Global Challenge Research Fund (GCRF)-African Swift Workshop on the pre-tested 3 users and co-production workshop organised by NIMET and SWIFT, held in Abuja.

“We are at an advanced stage of revamping our marine meteorological operations to deliver world class services that are globally relevant in line with international best practices.

“This is what we are doing but it is capital intensive that involves purchase and installation of ocean going, the tidal gauge and other marine weather equipment. This is just the first phase and we will expand by next year. Although we currently provide marine weather services, it’s at the elementary level,” the NiMet DG said.