By Ifeoluwa Odunayo
The Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMet) has urged the government to increase funding, improve security, and provide modern technology to enhance the country’s early warning systems.
Speaking in Abuja at the 2025 World Meteorological Day celebration themed “Closing the Early Warning Gap Together,” NiMet Director General, Prof. Charles Anosike, said recent extreme weather events had exposed serious weaknesses in Nigeria’s early warning system.
He identified poor funding, outdated technology, insecurity, and lack of coordination as major challenges.
Anosike emphasized that investing in early warning systems not only saves lives and livelihoods but also delivers ten times the returns on investment and boosts economic growth.
The World Meteorological Organization (WMO), representative, Bernard Gomez, also stressed the importance of free access to weather data for national security and disaster prevention.
He revealed that WMO is working to establish a regional wireless centre and a centre of excellence for numerical weather prediction in Nigeria to improve forecasting and disaster preparedness.
