Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMet) says it will intensify effort to effectively support sustainable socio-economic activities in the country.
NiMet Director General, Prof. Sani Mashi, said this during an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Thursday, July 25, 2019 in Abuja.
According to the DG, large number of critical sections of the national economy are making effective use of NiMet’s products and service in carrying out their services.
He listed those critical sectors that revolved around the national economy to include oil and gas, marine transport, land transport, construction industry among others.
“Working towards its responsibility to observe, collect, collate, process and disseminate weather-related data, information within and outside the country has become paramount in the nation’s socio-economic life,” he said.
The director urged the beneficiaries to give in return by appreciating NiMet’s services cash and kind to enhance operational capacity.
Mashi said that the revenue the agency had generated on its products and services was not encouraging.
“NiMeT is supposed to provide weather services to all sectors of Nigerian economy but we have problem with beneficiaries who failed to show appreciation.
“We are pushing very hard in order to ensure that all of them are brought on board so that mandate given to us by the Federal Government of Nigeria is effectively discharged,” he said.
He said that the little return from the services rendered would go a long way to tackle the agency’s financial challenges.
“Certainly, as we all know, government does not have the fund to take care 100 per cent of the need of all agencies.
“The encouragement of the Federal Government, especially the current administration is that MDAs should diversify their sources of funding.”
Mashi said that such feat would further help NiMet to develop its infrastructure and human capacity to enhance productivity.
By Gabriel Agbeja
