The Nigerian Meteorological Agency has signed a memorandum of understanding with Trans-African Hydro-Meteorological Observatory of Netherlands to develop a network of automatic weather stations across the country.
It said the collaboration would be for five years in the first instance, adding that it was aimed at advancing TAHMO’s vision to improve sub-Saharan Africa’s capacity for hydro-meteorological monitoring.
The Director-General, NIMET, Prof. Sani Mashi, said the partnership would increase the density of agency’s network of stations and enhance its goal of one weather station per 100km, in compliance with the standard stipulated by the World Meteorological Organisation.
Mashi said the project would take off immediately with the delivery of 100 AWS by TAHMO to be installed across the country at no cost to NIMET, according to a statement from the agency in Abuja on Monday.
He, however, revealed that subsequent implementation of the project would be through a joint funding arrangement to achieve the goal of 1,000 AWS.
Mashi said the project would boost NIMET’s education and research partners, as well as assist in the provision of educational materials on climate and hydrology for schools located close to the AWS.
He thanked the TAHMO team for initiating the partnership and enjoined both parties to do their best to ensure the full realisation of the objectives of the MoU.
In her response, the Coordinator of TAHMO, Els Veenhoven, said the organisation was active in 20 African countries, with meteorological services aimed at developing a vast network of weather stations across the continent.
She was quoted in the statement as saying, “TAHMO will be working with NIMET to increase density of ground observation stations that will help improve local weather forecasts, which will be transformed into useful information for government, researchers, mining industries, oil and gas companies and many others.”
The statement noted that another important aspect of the partnership was that both parties would jointly utilise the revenue generated from the sale of data under the project to maintain and grow the network of the AWS in pursuance of TAHMO’s mission for sub-Saharan Africa.
