NiMet pledges commitment to better service delivery
By Yusuf Yunus
The Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMet) has reiterated its commitment to provide accurate weather and climate reports to ensure the safety of lives and property in the aviation sector.
Its Director-General, Prof Mansur Matazu said this at the 27th Annual Conference of the League of Airport and Aviation Correspondents (LAAC) in Lagos.
The Business Intelligence (TBI Africa) reports that the conference is with the themed: ‘Aviation Industry: Changing Times, Changing Strategies’.
Matazu said it had resumed the training and retraining of its aeronautical meteorological observers and forecasters, aimed at improving quality service delivery in the sector.
He said the aviation industry was the most safety-conscious globally and NiMet had played an important role in actualising the safety of passengers and pilots over the years.
The DG said the agency was poised to develop various products and services that were reliable, accurate and timely for users of weather information.
“The agency is critical to the, operation, and development of airports by providing climatic weather observations, weather predictions and continuous atmospheric monitoring for alerts and warnings.
“NiMet will continue to provide better weather information that are critical for airport development e.g., wind rose; and safety of air navigation.
“This includes weather information for take-off and landing, en route, destination and alternate airports.
“Our personnel are highly skilled, competent, and re-trained regularly to provide aeronautical meteorology services”.
“For every flying person, the services of the Agency must have been consumed albeit behind the scenes. We have invested and continue to invest in facility upgrades to promote efficiency of our operations”.
“Our briefing rooms have been equipped and access to aeronautical weather information has been improved through automation”, he said.
The NiMet boss noted that the agency would continue to sensitise Nigerians on weather and climate related issues via its different products and services.
Matazu described the theme of the event as apt as the COVID experience had taught all stakeholders that the industry was highly dynamic, vulnerable, fast-paced.
He said this was in terms of changing technology, and thus require forward thinking initiatives and policies to keep up with success.
The agency DG said in sustaining the sector, it would required all stakeholders to play critical roles that were not only patriotic but that would not sabotage socio-economic development of the industry and the nation at large.
According to him, this requires patriotism, honesty, integrity, and diligence of public and private institutions including national and international stakeholders.
He said: “The aviation Industry is one of the fastest growing industries with tremendous contributions to the nations’ GDP.
“This is by providing, revenue to the nation, livelihoods for workers, catalytic support to other Sectors, growth for the nation among others.”
Matazu said the role of the agency in promoting safety was in line with its establishment mandate.
