NIMET To Present 2020 SRP Next Week

The Nigerian Meteorological Agency, NIMET, will present the Seasonal Rainfall Prediction, SRP for 2020 on Tuesday, the Director-General, Professor Sani Abubakar Mashi has announced. Professor Mashi who stated this in Abuja at a media parley with journalists on Thursday also said the agency has established a new institute in Katsina for training in meteorology at the Ordinary National Diploma, OND and Higher National Diploma, HND, levels, with the first batch of students expected to resume in September this year. According to him, the 2020 rainfall prediction “will highlight vital information that may affect socio-economic activities in the air, land and water transportation, agriculture, water resources, disaster management and mitigation, tourism, health, and sports,” among others. He said: “We wish to announce that this year’s SRP would be unveiled to the general public on Tuesday, the 21st of January, 2020 at the NAF Conference Centre, Kado, Abuja. “Forecast information that has been provided include the onset and cessation dates of the 2020 rainy seasons, the downscaled total amount of rainfall expected in all the 774 local government areas of the country, temperature forecast as well as malaria and meningitis forecast.” In what was understandably cheering news for management and staff of the agency, Professor Mashi announced new and improved conditions of service; a development that elicited songs of solidarity weather conditions for Saturday “Prior to the coming of this administration,” continued Professor Mashi, “the agency had been operating obsolete conditions of service. There were a lot of agitations by the unions for the review of the conditions of service. “Management in collaboration with Federal Ministry of Aviation, the agency’s based unions and the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment constituted a committee. In December 2019, the Head of the civil service of the federation approved the conditions of service,” he added.