Abuja, Nigeria – July 3, 2025:
The Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMet) and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) are set to deepen their partnership to strengthen disaster preparedness and climate resilience across the region.
During a courtesy visit to NiMet headquarters in Abuja, Prof. Charles Anosike, Director General of NiMet, welcomed a delegation from ECOWAS led by Dr. Sintiki Tarfa Ugbe, Director of Humanitarian and Social Affairs. Discussions focused on enhancing collaboration in meteorology, early warning systems, and climate science.
The initiative aligns with the global “Early Warnings for All” (EW4All) campaign, a people-centred drive to ensure timely, science-based alerts on weather and climate-related risks across vulnerable regions.
Prof. Anosike emphasized that the partnership will prioritize:
Strengthening early warning systems across ECOWAS member states
Capacity building through joint technical training and climate knowledge sharing
Supporting the creation of the ECOWAS Disaster Operation Centre, a proposed regional hub for managing multi-hazard early warnings
Recognizing NiMet’s Training Centres as ECOWAS Centres of Excellence for climate and meteorological capacity development
The ECOWAS delegation praised NiMet’s leadership and contribution to climate services in West Africa, particularly in disaster risk response and regional coordination.
Both parties agreed to formalize the collaboration through a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in the coming weeks, which will serve as a framework for executing joint initiatives.
This strategic partnership is expected to scale up regional climate resilience, promote science-based policy-making, and ensure that vulnerable populations across West Africa receive accurate and timely climate information.
