Professor Charles Anosike, Director General and CEO of the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMet), emphasized the crucial role of meteorological data in enabling farmers to make informed, climate-resilient decisions.
Speaking at a CEO breakfast session in Abuja, organized by the Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning and the Nigeria Economic Summit Group (NESG), Anosike highlighted the vulnerability of Nigeria’s food system to climate change.
“The global climate system is very complex and cannot be controlled or managed by one institution or country.
“To be able to influence that system, we have to understand how the system behaves, and that is where meteorology comes in,” Anosike noted.
Anosike stressed the importance of empowering farmers with weather information, given Nigeria’s heavy reliance on rain-fed agriculture.
He also reiterated NiMet’s commitment to providing actionable insights for climate-smart decisions.
Dr. Audu Grema, Senior Programme Officer for Agriculture at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, then commended NiMet’s collaborative efforts towards predictive analysis, early warning signals, and industry best practices.