AFRICAN CONFERENCE ON METEOROLOGY FOR AVIATION Presentation by: PROFESSOR SANI ABUBAKAR MASHI DIRECTOR-GENERAL/CEO, NIGERIAN METEOROLOGICAL AGENCY & PERMANENT REPRESENTATIVE OF NIGERIA WITH WORLD
1.0 Evolution of weather observation in nigeria Until now it was thought that weather observation started in Nigeria in 1892 at the then Race Course, now Tafawa Balewa Square. However, it is now known that weather observation in Nigeria started earlier than 1887 Some records in a meteorological archive of the Centre for Environmental Data Analysis in the United Kingdom shows that weather observations were made at Akassa (present Bayelsa State) in 1887
Meteorological Observation at Akassa, Nigeria Recorded in February 1887
The Meteorological Service Department was one of the entities that were created to provide essential public services in the British colonial government in Nigeria along with the Public Works Department, Posts & Telegraphs Department In April 1949, the service became a full-fledged Department and was one of the seven (7) Colonial Department structure used in running the country. In July 1952, with the introduction of the Ministerial form of Government, the Meteorological Department moved from one Ministry to another due to the fact that the Meteorological Service affects all aspects of the economy
The department has been moved from Communications to Transport, Aviation, Natural Resources and Agriculture e.t.c. The Met Department continued to operate under different ministries at different times until 2003 when the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMet) was created through an Act of the National Assembly, namely: (NiMet Establishment Act No. 23 of 2003) as a Parastatal of the then Federal Ministry of Aviation (now Transportation)
2 Legal Framework/Cost Recovery The NiMet establishment act clearly spelt out the cost recovery method to employ for Aviation Services in addition to other charges. This was agreed in form of percentage that will accrue to NiMet from the aviation sector such as: i. 10% of landing charges by the Federal Airport Authority (FAA) ii. 10% of en-route and over flight charges from the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) iii. 10% of 5% sales tax surcharged on tickets by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) iv. Payment from State owned airports through MoU. This amount varies from airport to airport
3. Milestone Achievements The Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMet) was established by an act of the parliament known as the Establishment ACT 2003, enacted on 21st May 2003, and became effective on 19th June 2003 following Presidential assent
2.0 Milestone Achievements NiMet is a Federal Government agency charged with the responsibility to advise the Federal Government on all aspects of meteorology; project, prepare and interpret government policy in the field of meteorology; and to issue weather (and climate) forecasts for the safe operations of aircrafts, ocean going vessels and oil rigs
2.0 Milestone Achievements NiMet has been carrying out these responsibilities, particularly in Aviation by deploying state of the earth equipment In the past NiMet had 54 synoptic, but this figure has increased to over 100 Stations
4 Quality Management System (QMS) NiMet gained its ISO 9001:2008 in March 2013 and has maintained it for three years before successfully transiting to the ISO 9001:2015 in May 2017 The Agency was also successful at the first ISO 9001:2015 surveillance/maintenance audit in May 2018. Four (4) international airports and their related functions at the Headquarters are being certified
2018 o c Nigerian Meteorological Agency ISO Certification : Process NiMet has complied with best practices by certifying its aeronautical meteorological services : ISO 9001:2015 certified (the first African Country to have achieved that) There is on-going training on quality management system, Competency Assessment and commitment to ensure attitude and orientation change NiMet is remodeling the fabrication and calibration laboratory in readiness for ISO : 17025 certification
2 Quality Management System (QMS) The NiMet Laboratory Calibration Workshop situated at the Headquarters is undergoing all necessary re-conditioning that will meet the ISO 17025 standard for certification
5. WMO Competency Assessment NiMet keyed into the WMO Competency Assessment in 2013 with the initial training of assessors. The first assessment of the Aeronautical Meteorological Personnel (AMPs) was conducted at the four (4) international airports in 2015 Reassessment was conducted in 2016 for those who could not pass the initial assessment. A total 118 AMF and AMO passed out of 153 assessed
5.1 Implementation of WMO Basic Instruction Packages (BIP) The Regional Training Centre (RTC) of the Agency has commenced the implementation of the WMO Basic Instruction Package for Met Technicians and Meteorologist BIP-MT and BIP-M respectively in 2017 The training centre has successfully gained the WMO accreditation of Regional Standard having passed through vigorous screening and inspection. Presently it is undergoing processes of QMS certification of ISO 29990:2010
7. Aviation System Block Upgrade (ASBU) In 2015, The Ministry of Aviation set up a committee to drive and implement ASBU in Nigeria. The committee has been working ensure that ASBU modules are implemented The B0-AMET, which concerns Meteorology has been fully implemented
8. Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) NiMet has signed several MoUs with other corporate organizations to either provide technological equipment or to provide services, such as TAHMO, WASCAL, KMS, India, e.t.c. NiMet has realized the significance of collaboration with other institutions particularly the universities Some of the collaborations are for exchange programmes between the two organizations, while some for the provision of meteorological equipment and data sharing
NiMet/Indian Met INITIATIVE DG/CEO NiMet, Professor Sani Abubakar Mashi met with Dr KJ. Ramesh the DG of India Met Dept and The country s PR to WMO and Dr Mrutyunjay Mohapatra, the Deputy Director General and Head of Tropical Cyclones Research Centre of the and had useful discussions on south-south interagency cooperation. NiMet has so much to benefit from the Indians especially in the areas of Numerical Weather Prediction, Sensor design, satellite meteorology and research. A draft MoU has been submitted to formalize the cooperation.
NiMet/WASCAL Collaboration NiMet, in October, 2017 signed an MoU with the West African Service Centre on Climate Change Adaptive Land Use-WASCAL to increase observation stations density as well as developing refined tailor made weather/climate services in the country. Fallout of this noble collaboration, WASCAL has donated 6 number AWOS- Automatic Weather Stations which are to be integrated in the NiMet s existing observatories for improved services.
NiMet/TAHMO INITIATIVE NiMet, recently signed an MoU with a Dutch Consortium- TAHMO for the installation of a robust network of 1000 AWOS in Nigeria for hydrometeorological monitoring. Under this partnership, the Agency, on 8 th October, 2017 received 37 Units at no cost to the Nigerian Government. These Units are being immediately installed to significantly increase the density of NiMet s observatories and quality of services.
Technical Partnership with KMA
2 The Journey So Far Currently, NiMet is witnessing massive infrastructural investment resulting to seamless service, accurate forecasting and real time reportage of weather information
2018 o c Nigerian Meteorological Agency
9 The Journey So Far The Agency is driving towards a new paradigm of commercialization for the purpose of increasing the Agency s IGR and reducing dependence on Government funding. Today, NiMet is the only Agency designated for the training of Meteorological personnel for National and Regional needs in the English speaking West African Countries.
NiMet Strategic Impact Plan (2018-2021) In order to leverage on the existing opportunities, the agency develop a 4-year strategic impact plan that will drive development, improve capacity and increase revenue generation. The plan is in line with Federal Government Medium Term Sector Strategy (MTSS), which is a budgetary provision plan for Four years (2017-2020) This impact plan is not only in the aviation sector of the agency but cut across all sections and units. This presentation will only dwell on the plans that affect the aviation and marine sectors.
Establishment of 200 Synoptic Meteorological Stations in 4 years Installation of 500 Automatic Weather Stations (AWS) in 4 years Acquisition and installation of high computational facility to improve NiMet NWP ( WMO has already been engaged to assist NiMet) Data rescue which has already commenced with technical assistance from WMO Accreditation and ISO 17025 certification of NiMet Instrument Calibration Laboratory Upgrade of existing 8 Air Quality Monitoring Centres across the country Installation of 20 Marine Automatic Weather Stations
Establishment of 8 Port Met Offices at major sea ports in the country Upgrade and rehabilitation of 12 existing Marine Met Stations including tidal gauges Training and re-training of Meteorological Personnel to enhance capacity Extension of QMS to two (2) additional international airports and the sixteen (16) local airports
Challenges Funding/budgetary constraint from the Federal Government (IGR not sufficient) Cost of acquiring high tech equipment (e.g. RADAR, AWS, LLWAS) Technology transfer from the developed countries Inability of Local Engineers to sustain these very expensive equipment Third party (middle-men) involvement in the procurement process Brain drain/early retirement of experienced staff Transmission of OPMET messages has been a challenge over the years through the AFTN (GTS installation with assistance of WMO and AMHSS system due in January 2019)
Conclusion My humble submission is that there is no problem with out a solution and so Africans must wake up and face these challenges if our aviation must be sustained because we have all that it takes to overcome them.
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