The Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMet) and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) have officially forged a strategic partnership aimed at significantly enhancing regional disaster preparedness and climate security across West Africa. This crucial collaboration, which advanced during a meeting held on July 1, 2025, in Abuja, involved key figures: Professor Charles Anosike, the Director General of NiMet, and Dr. Sintiki Tarfa Ugbe, Director of Humanitarian and Social Affairs at ECOWAS.

The core objective of this alliance is multifaceted, focusing on strengthening early warning systems, providing essential technical expertise, and bolstering capacity building in the vital fields of meteorology and climate science. Both parties underscored the partnership's alignment with the global "Early Warnings for All" (EW4All) initiative. This global drive emphasizes a shift towards science-driven, people-centred climate action, with the ultimate goal of enhancing regional resilience against climate-related threats. The ECOWAS delegation specifically commended NiMet's established leadership in advancing climate services throughout West Africa and acknowledged its pivotal role in responding to regional disasters. Dr. Ugbe highlighted that NiMet's data and forecasting authority makes it an indispensable ally in these efforts.

Discussions between NiMet and ECOWAS covered several key areas of mutual interest designed to operationalize this resilience framework. These areas include the implementation of joint training programs, facilitating technical exchanges between experts, and ensuring broad access to critical climate knowledge products. A significant point of discussion was the establishment of a centralized coordination hub, referred to as the ECOWAS Disaster Operation Centre or ECOWAS Disaster Situation Room. This facility is envisioned as a regional hub designed to coordinate real-time multi-hazard early warning dissemination and effectively address climate-related vulnerabilities across ECOWAS member states. Furthermore, the potential designation of NiMet’s Training Centres as ECOWAS Centres of Excellence for capacity development in meteorology and climate science was thoroughly explored, recognizing NiMet’s involvement in global initiatives like the World Meteorological Organisation’s Voluntary Cooperation Programme.

Both NiMet and ECOWAS expressed strong commitment to formalizing this strategic alliance through the imminent signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU). This MoU will serve as a guiding framework for their joint activities, ensuring that the partnership effectively leverages NiMet’s expertise in forecast-based planning and data interpretation. The collaboration is seen as a unified effort to advance ECOWAS’s climate security agenda amid increasing extreme weather threats, integrating end-to-end early warning systems to protect lives and livelihoods and ultimately scaling up regional resilience across West Africa.