The World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) has elected Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMet)`s Regional Training Centre (RTC) to join its Capacity Development Panel.
Prof. Sani Mashi, the Director General of NiMet, made the disclosure in a statement issued on Monday in Abuja by Mr Muntari Ibrahim, the agency’s General Manager of Corporate Communications.
Mashi said the panel was meant to close gap between the less developed and the developed countries.
“Amidst the COVID -19 pandemic generating gloom and doom around the world, it is worthy of note that a significant landmark has been achieved for Nigeria.
“Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMet) Regional Training Centre, Oshodi, was elected as member of the World Meteorological Organisation’s Executive Council Capacity Development Panel (WMO-CDP).
“The work of the panel will include supporting institutional, infrastructural, procedural and human resources capacity development activities of WMO, with the intention of closing the gap between the less developed and the developed countries.
“The panel will normally meet each year and make effective use of remote coordination and collaboration,” he said.
According to him, out of the 24 meteorological RTCs in the world, NiMet is the only one elected by WMO into the 12-member panel to represent all the RTCs in the world.
“The implication of this development is that NiMet is further strengthened to assist sister meteorological institutions in Africa, particularly in the area of human and infrastructural capacity development,” he said.
The director general said that the agency’s membership of the panel would consolidate its leadership role in the continent.
Mashi said the achievement was a consequence of positive aggressive reforms championed by the Minister of Aviation, Sen. Hadi Sirika, to promote the Nigerian Aviation sector.
He added that the Director of the Meteorological Regional Training Centre, Prof. Peter Odjugo, would serve as the representative of the centre in the panel.
