Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMeT), says it will fully engage in training and retraining of manpower resources toward achieving long term weather management.

The Director General of NiMeT, Prof. Sani Mashi made the declaration on Tuesday in Abuja in an interview with News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).

According to Mashi, such move will improve skills of the staff and boost total output of the agency in weather management.

He said the agency’s plan was to achieve sustainable national socio-economic development for safety of life and property.

“And to be an active partaker in ensuring that the set goals of the agency about the provision of world standard weather prediction was attained.

“By providing a long term weather management and plans as well as designing courses to boost the manpower resources of the agency at various levels,”he said.

Meanwhile, Mashi had in a statement by Mr Muntari Ibrahim, NiMet’s General Manager, Corporate Communications Unit, said NiMet Training School, Oshodi had become the first World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) Regional Training Centre (RTC) in Africa.

He said the RTC would be awarded the ISO 299990:2010 certification.

“The International Standards Organisation (ISO) requires that all training institutions in the world should subject themselves to periodic auditing in order to qualify for issuance of appropriate certification.

“It was in furtherance of this that NiMet invited ISO for the auditing exercise which was carried out on their behalf by CERTECH of Canada and culminated in the award of the ISO 299990:2010 effective Aug 1. 2019.

“The import of this achievement is that the NiMet training school curriculum is in conformity with international standards and best practices and the certificate issued is recognised anywhere in the world,” he said.

The director general said the feat would promote the nation in the international community.

He further expressed optimism on continuous commitment of NiMet in achieving excellence and sustaining high standards in the training of meteorologists and meteorological technicians.

He thanked the Federal Government for providing the resources, guidance and support that enabled NiMet to successfully attain the certification.

“The Centre in recent times had undergone upgrades in facilities and runs regular and non-regular programmes for manpower development and improvement.

“The World Meteorological Organisation Regional Training Centre trains Nigerians and nationals from other African countries such as Liberia, Senegal, Ghana and Uganda, among others,” he said.