NiMet assures regional centres’ trainees of adequate power supply

The Director General and Chief Executive Officer of Nigeria Meteorological Agency (NiMet), Dr. Anthony Anuforom, has assured the first batch of international trainees at the agency’s Regional Training Centre, Oshodi, Lagos State of improved power supply.

Speaking to the trainees that are drawn from Liberia, Gambia and Sierra Leone, at the training centre, Dr. Anuforom, charged the students to make the best of the high-quality facilities in the centre, feel at home and take their instructions seriously.

He told them that the importance of meteorology in the present global economy could not be overemphasised pointing out that NiMet has just finalised a memorandum of understanding with the Nigeria Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) for weather information sharing.

Earlier, the Principal of the Regional Training Centre, Akinyemi Olatunji, told The Guardian that out of the 27 trainees, three persons who completed their three-month programme in November, had returned to Liberia.

Olatunji said some of the programmes that are offered at the centre include Aviation meteorology, Agro-meteorology, Marine Meteorology and training of Meteorological Technicians.

“We have a lot of programmes, some are designed for school leavers, those just finishing from secondary school they can come in as metrological technicians class 4, 3 and a higher programme class 2.

“Those of them in class four and three are trained to become weather observers. They can actually measure various elements of weather, like temperature, pressure and such others.  At class two level we train them to become forecasters, so they can actually predict weather before its time of occurrence or the time of cessation,” he stated.

The Principal disclosed that the international trainees came to take advantage of some of the generalised programmes that the centre designed, stressing that some of the Liberians came to do special courses in aeronautical metrology and how to handle meteorological instruments for data collection and analyses.

While disclosing that the NiMet DG is Nigeria’s permanent representative in the World Meteorological Organisation, Olatunji, said the centre was actually designed to cater for citizens of West African sub-region, in addition to other Africans.

He said Nigeria showed the capacity to establish the training centre because of availability of manpower and facility, adding that the WMO meets two times yearly to discuss issues pertaining to meteorology worldwide.

Olatunji disclosed that the foreign trainees complained to Dr. Anuforom about the epileptic nature of electricity supply, noting that apart from the challenge of power due to few number of generators to lit up all the facilities in the centre, the Federal Government was doing its best for the centre.

“They said that power supply was hindering their programmes; we have limited numbers of generators to serve all the buildings here in the centre. It means that when there is power outage, some of the buildings and hostels could be affected.