The federal government of Nigeria and the government of India have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for collaboration in the areas of meteorological science, specialized exploration and development.
The MoU was signed on behalf of the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMet) by its director-general, Professor Mansur Matazu, and Dr Mrutyunjay Mohapatra, director- general of the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD), who signed on behalf of IMD, during a recent executive council meeting of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) in Geneva, Switzerland.
Speaking after the event, minister of Aviation, Senator Hadi Sirika, who oversaw the signing formality alongside the Indian High Mission to Geneva, said the signing of the MoU marked another landmark in the fresh growth of NiMet under this administration.
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According to Sirika, the event was also a great attestation to the global leadership of NiMet within the world meteorological community which has been attained during the current tenure of Professor Matazu as director-general.
In order to ensure a faultless implementation of the memorandum, the two countries resolved that a specialized committee of six membersb (three members representing each of the parties) shall be set up to execute it while the position of president of the committee shall chosen between the parties on periodic basis.
Special assistant to the minister of Aviation on public affairs, Dr James Odaudu, said in a statement on Sunday that while explaining the essentiality of the MoU, Matazu said“ the main ideal of the proposed collaboration is to give bilateral relationship between NiMet and its Indian counterpart towards meteorological development in the two countries.
According to MoU, the parties have agreed to work together in the provision of WMO-standardised services in Numerical Weather Prediction Capability, Meteorological Sensor Designing and Satellite Meteorology.
Other proposed areas of collaboration include; Scientific study on meteorology and its applications in various sectors, ‘Nowcasting ’ and early warning capabilities; and capacity building activities.
The MoU also provides that all inventions, advancements, original works and/or discoveries, which are conceived or made during cooperative projects will remain the property of both parties who’ll together have right to seek the intellectual property protection.
Both parties are also hoped to ensure that similar cooperation consists of their separate laws, rules, regulations and other international agreements to which both parties are signatories.
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