The Federal Government of Nigeria and the Government of India have signed a Memorandum Of Understanding (MoU), to partner with each other in the conduct of Meteorological science, technical research and development.
The MoU was signed on behalf of the Nigerian Meteorological Agency by its Director General, Prof Mansur Matazu and the Director General of the Indian Meteorological Department, Dr Mrutyunjay Mohapatra, who signed on behalf of IMD, during the Executive Council meeting of the World Meteorological Organization in Geneva, Switzerland.
Explaining the essence of the MoU, the Director General of NiMet said that the main objective of the collaboration is to provide a bilateral relationship between NiMet and its Indian counterpart towards meteorological development in the two countries.
According to the MoU, the parties have agreed to collaborate to provide WMO-standardised services in numerical weather prediction capability, meteorological sensor designing and satellite meteorology.
Other proposed areas of collaboration according to the agency are; scientific research on meteorology and its applications in various sectors, ‘Nowcasting’ and early warning capabilities and capacity-building activities.
In a statement by the Special Assistant to the Minister of Aviation, James Odaudu noted that the MoU will aalso see to it that all inventions, improvements, original works and/or discoveries, which are conceived or made during a collaborative project will remain the property of both parties and they will jointly have the right to seek the intellectual property protection.
The statement partly read, ”In order to ensure a seamless implementation of the Memorandum, the two countries resolved that a technical committee of six members (three members representing each of the Parties) shall be set up to implement this MoU while the position of Chairman of the Committee Shall alternate between the Parties on annual basis.
“The technical committee shall have the responsibility of advising on legal, training and financial procedures for the implementation of the MoU and monitoring the progress of the collaboration and prepare annual reports.”
