The Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMet) is to deploy thunder and lightning early warning equipment across the county.
The Director-General of NiMet, Prof. Mansur Bako Matazu, disclosed this in Abuja during the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signing ceremony between NiMet and Earth Network, USA, which is the equipment provider.
The event held virtually.
Speaking on the sideline of the event, the NiMet DG said the facilities, when deployed, will help alert stakeholders in the aviation, maritime, transportation, power and construction sectors.
He also said they will boost the revenue profile of NiMet because stakeholders will use the weather information.
Matazu said, “The partnership with Earth Network, a US based organisation, is in order to improve on the early services we provide in the aviation and even beyond to other sectors. One of which is the monitoring of lightening and thunderstorms, which are serious weather hazard around our airports. They also affect installations across the country like power facilities and the oil and gas facilities.
“We are getting in the first instance 10 equipment that will be installed across the country and this will help give us meal time monitoring of weather and also thunderstorms and lightening which affects operations at the airport and other facilities.
“With this, we are better prepared in getting real time forecasts and periodic forecasts like every 30 minutes or less to our clients and users.
He added, “This initial 10 are coming at no cost to NiMet, but based on the revenue that we will generate from this and based on the mutual agreement, we can enter into real partnership based on the PPP guidelines in the country.
“The equipment are almost arriving Nigeria and we will deploy immediately. The software is already being tested. The duration for the MoU is five years in the first instance. We can renew after that.”
