The Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMet) has said that it will the release 2020 Seasonal Rainfall Prediction (SRP) on Tuesday, January 21.
NiMet’s Director General, Prof. Sani Mashi, made this known at the media briefing in Abuja on Thursday, January 16 on the forthcoming 2020 seasonal rainfall prediction.
According to him, the 2020 rainfall prediction will highlight vital information that may affect socio-economic activities in the air, land and water transportation, agriculture, water resources, disaster management and mitigation.
Others, he said, are tourism, sports, health, building and construction, energy sectors among others in the course of the year.
“In order to help policy makers and farmers plan ahead, we wish to announce that this year’s Seasonal Rainfall Prediction will be unveiled to general public on Tuesday, Jan.21, 2020 at the NAF Conference Centre, Abuja.
“Forecast information that have been provided include; the onset and cessation dates of the 2020 rainy season; the downscaled total amount of rainfall expected in all the 774 Local Government Areas of the country.
“Temperature forecast as well as malaria and meningitis forecast. The socio-economic implications of the expected rainfall and temperature patterns for major sectors of the economy will also be discussed during the event,” he said.
Mashi said NiMet had witnessed increase from 54 to over 157 meteorological stations within three years and had acquired ISO 9001:2015 for Aeronautical Meteorological Services (AMS) delivery as first meteorological organisation in Africa to achieve the feat.
The director general said the agency also acquired ISO 29990:2010 for training services at the Regional Training Centre, Lagos, to be the first again in Africa.
“On this, NiMet’s meteorological institution is the only institution in Africa and one of the seven in the world to have achieved this ISO Certification.
“In addition to the WMO RTC NiMet is operating, we have also established a new National Meteorological Training Institute in Katsina, where we shall be training Nigerians in Meteorology at OND and HND levels.
“National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) has already granted provisional approval for commencement of the programme.
“Our first batch of students shall resume in September 2020. The institute is the only one in Africa, but second in the world beside the South American Training Institute in Ecuador,” he said.
Mashi commended efforts of the stakeholders involved in achieving new and improved condition of service for the agency.
By Gabriel Agbeja
