TheCable

Mansur Matazu, director-general, Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMet), says the dissemination of weather alerts to women in rural areas will soon commence.

He said the development will help to tackle weather-induced disasters and food insecurity caused by climate change.

In a statement signed by Muntari Ibrahim, NiMet’s public relations general manager, Matazu was quoted as saying by arming women with weather information, cases of crop losses across the country will be reduced.

“NiMet will drive the process of ensuring that the weather alerts issued trickle down to the womenfolk, who are most vulnerable to weather-induced disasters, since most of them in the rural areas are farmers,” he was quoted as saying.

“By arming the women with this weather information, it will reduce cases of crop losses from members of this particular constituency.” 

He said women in the country account for over 59.9 percent of the population and there is a need to partner with them to disseminate weather forecasts and early warning messages, because “if you educate a woman, you are educating an entire nation”.

“NiMet remains open to purpose-driven partnerships geared towards saving not just the women but Nigerians in general, from suffering crop losses, flooding and wastage due to weather vagaries,” he added.