NiMet, ECOWAS Forge Partnership to Strengthen Disaster Preparedness 

NiMet, ECOWAS Forge Partnership to Strengthen Disaster Preparedness 

JOEL OLADELE, Abuja

The Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMet) and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) have agreed to collaborate in enhancing disaster preparedness across the region.

This commitment was solidified during a courtesy visit on July 1, 2025, when NiMet’s Director General and CEO, Professor Charles Anosike, received a delegation from the ECOWAS Commission led by Dr. Sintiki Tarfa Ugbe, Director of Humanitarian and Social Affairs.

Welcoming the delegation, Professor Anosike reaffirmed NiMet’s commitment to fostering regional cooperation in climate and weather services. He emphasized the Agency’s strategic role in strengthening early warning systems and expressed readiness to support ECOWAS initiatives through technical expertise, training, and access to meteorological data.

Dr. Ugbe commended NiMet’s leadership in advancing climate services across West Africa and recalled the Agency’s pivotal role during the Sierra Leone mudslide disaster—a demonstration of proactive and competent regional support. She underscored the importance of anticipatory action, early warning dissemination, and collaborative responses to humanitarian crises, describing NiMet as a key partner in driving regional coordination, co-development of services, and capacity-building.

Highlighting the potential for deeper collaboration, Dr. Ugbe identified areas of mutual interest such as joint training programmes, technical exchanges, and broader access to climate knowledge products tailored to regional priorities.

In his remarks, Professor Anosike expressed appreciation for the recognition by ECOWAS and reiterated NiMet’s dedication to regional partnerships. He called for strengthened institutional frameworks and urged ECOWAS to support NiMet’s cost recovery initiatives to ensure the sustainability of climate services.

He also reaffirmed NiMet’s alignment with global initiatives like the United Nations’ Early Warnings for All (EW4All)  through the development of a National Framework for Early Warning Services that supports end-to-end coordination across the climate value chain.

Further discussions were conducted regarding the establishment of the ECOWAS Disaster Operation Centre, which is being led by Professor Mansur Bako Matazu, the immediate past Director-General of the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMet) and a member of the visiting delegation.

This Centre is designed to function as a regional hub for the coordination of multi-hazard early warning dissemination and for addressing climate-related vulnerabilities across Member States.

The meeting also explored the recognition of NiMet’s Training Centres as ECOWAS Centres of Excellence for capacity development in meteorology and climate science. Both parties have agreed on the need to formalise their collaboration through a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), which is expected to be signed soon to guide and expand their joint activities.

The meeting concluded with mutual expressions of commitment to scale up regional resilience through science-driven, people-centred climate action.