By Ignatius Ushie

The National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) will undertake an inspection visit of the facilities at the Regional Training Centre (RTC) of the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMet) at Oshodi-Lagos, in preparation for the accreditation of National Diploma programmes in the centre.

According to a statement made available to Transport in Abuja, this followed an application for accreditation of National Diploma courses offered at the Centre by NiMet.

According to the Director General and Chief Executive Officer of NiMet, Professor Charles Anosike, “The Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMet) is saddled with the responsibility of not only providing weather information, but also training manpower in the fields of Meteorology and Climate Sciences.

“The World Meteorological Organisation Regional Training Centre (WMO RTC) Oshodi, Lagos established in 1957, is responsible for the Meteorological Manpower Training for NiMet.

“Over the years, the WMO RTC, has been running and issuing only certificates courses because it has no national monitoring and accrediting body. This is not good enough”.

Professor Anosike added that “To further fortify and expand the training horizon of the WMO RTC, we approached the Management of the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE), Kaduna, to express interest in running Diploma Programmes in; (1) ND Meteorology and (2) ND Climate Change Science. Gladly, NBTE has approved the advisory/resources inspection visit to the RTC Oshodi as a precursor to the running of the ND programmes at the RTC, Oshodi, Lagos”.