NiMet Partners CARE Nigeria To Reach End Users

LAGOS – The partnership with CARE Nigeria, part of CARE United States (U.S), would help the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMet) to reach the last mile and other users that would benefit from its weather and climate data.

Prof. Charles Anosike, the Director-General of NiMet, stated this on Tuesday in Abuja when he hosted Dr. Hussaini Abdu, the Country Director of CARE Nigeria.

Anosike explained that the functions of Nimet were very critical to preparing the nation for disaster response.

He explained that the agency already had partnerships with the state governors through the Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF), and other organisations and Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs).

He expressed that Nimet disseminated the weather and climate information through these channels.

He added: “Partnering with CARE, a big player in the humanitarian sector globally and in Nigeria will also help us to reach the end users of our weather and climate information in addition to our ongoing efforts.

“We deal with perishable products. Getting the information out to the farmers and other users on time is very important.”

Anosike maintained that the humanitarian crisis the world was experiencing at present was becoming more complex due to the effects of climate change and global conflicts.

With the present climate change, Anosike declared that it was important for the nation to discuss these issues to see how climate-informed decision-making could be integrated into poverty reduction framework.

“This is why we are looking forward to the partnership with CARE Nigeria. There is a need to identify the issues that impact our communities. When climate crisis strikes, it displaces communities and causes forced labour and human trafficking.

“These exacerbate the challenges that we already have. How we integrate weather and climate information for better decision making is very critical for sustainable development,” he added.

In his response, Abdul commended Anosike for the opportunity to bring the CARE Nigeria team to NiMet to discuss areas of partnership.

He explained that CARE Nigeria was the country office of CARE USA, which was established in 1945.

He informed that the organisation was established to support people who were going through a major crisis.

“It works in over 120 countries including Nigeria. CARE Nigeria was established in 2017 initially to respond to the situation in the Northeast but has now expanded its interventions to two major mandate areas.

“One is to continue our humanitarian response in the Northeast and other parts of the country. The second is to deepen our development programs,” he added.

Abdu said that climate change had become a major concern as it is also creating humanitarian crises as seen in Nigeria’s Northeast.

Both organizations agreed at the meeting to formalize the proposed partnership by signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU).