The Nigerian Meteorological Agency has inaugurated an Artificial Intelligence Research and Integration Team as part of renewed efforts to strengthen innovation, drive digital transformation, and enhance service delivery in weather and climate forecasting.

The Director General and Chief Executive Officer of NiMet, Charles Anosike, disclosed this development in a statement issued by the agency on Tuesday.

According to the statement, “The inauguration underscores NiMet’s commitment to complement decades of physics-based forecasting with emerging AI-driven approaches, in line with the Federal Government’s digital transformation agenda and the ongoing modernization of meteorological services in Nigeria.”

NiMet explained that the newly inaugurated technical team will be responsible for developing artificial intelligence-focused strategies and guiding their adoption within the agency’s operational systems.

The agency stated that the team is charged with “identifying opportunities, standards, and best practices for the application of artificial intelligence in meteorology, and with driving the integration of AI-based tools into NiMet’s operational forecasting systems.”

It added that the initiative is expected to enhance “the speed, accuracy, and accessibility of weather predictions through hybrid AI–traditional forecasting models.”

Anosike emphasised that strengthening digital capacity remains critical to NiMet’s future competitiveness and its role in national development.

He noted that building internal competence in artificial intelligence is vital to sustaining leadership in technological innovation and ensuring the responsible deployment of such tools across key sectors, including aviation, agriculture, and disaster management.

NiMet further disclosed that members of the AI Research and Integration Team were selected from various departments within the agency to ensure a wide range of expertise.

The statement clarified that “members of the AI Research and Integration Team were drawn from across the Agency’s units, reflecting a multidisciplinary approach to innovation.”

The agency described the inauguration as another significant step towards achieving global standards in service delivery, stating that it “marks another milestone in NiMet’s ongoing efforts to leverage digital technologies and research-driven solutions to deliver world-class meteorological services in Nigeria.”