Photo: L-R Mohammad Farrae, Scientific Director, Prof. Charles Anosike DG/CEO NiMet, Imara Salas, Director, AIM for Scale Secretariat
By Chidi Ugwu
The Agricultural Innovation Mechanism for Scale (AIM for Scale) team, led by Imara Salas, Director, AIM for Scale Secretariat, and Mohammad Farrae, Scientific Director, paid a courtesy visit to the Director General/CEO of the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMet), Prof. Charles Anosike, to discuss potential avenues for collaboration.
AIM for Scale is an initiative focused on promoting agricultural innovation. It is a consortium of global partners working together to scale up weather services for farmers. During the discussions, the AIM for Scale team outlined specific goals, including co-developing strategies for scaling up weather services and mobilising investment to deliver innovative solutions tailored to the needs of Nigerian farmers.
Crucially, the partnership draws on the combined expertise and resources of the AIM for Scale consortium, which brings together leading global organisations — the Gates Foundation, United Arab Emirates (UAE), Asian Development Bank (ADB), Inter-American Development Bank, World Bank, U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), NASA, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Community Jameel, Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence (MBZUAI), University of Chicago’s Human-Centered Weather Forecasts and AI for Climate (AICE) initiatives, World Meteorological Organization (WMO), and United Nations Systematic Observations Financing Facility (SOFF).
The planned collaboration with NiMet is expected to deliver significant benefits to Nigerian farmers by providing reliable, real-time weather information that empowers better planning, risk reduction, and improved agricultural productivity.
In her remarks, Imara Salas, Director of the AIM for Scale Secretariat, expressed gratitude to the DG/CEO of NiMet for the warm welcome extended to her and her colleague. She explained that AIM for Scale develops tailored packages, AI weather forecasts, and mobilises investments to deliver cost-effective, scalable innovations to hundreds of millions of farmers. AIM for Scale uses a vertical fund-style approach within the food systems space. Creating tailored innovation packages helps scale up solutions through partnerships with key players such as NiMet.
Professor Charles Anosike, Director General and CEO of the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMet), expressed his appreciation for Nigeria’s inclusion in the first African pilot project and for the invitation extended to the agency for the just-concluded training on AI weather in Abu Dhabi. He highlighted NiMet’s strong preparedness for this initiative, noting the agency’s depth of expertise and its commitment to meeting the growing demand for accurate weather and climate information, especially among smallholder farmers. This demand is increasing as farmers seek timely data to guide planting, harvesting, and risk management decisions.
Anosike also emphasised the importance of AI-powered weather services, which use advanced algorithms to improve forecasting accuracy and deliver information more quickly. These innovative systems are designed to make predictions more reliable, helping farmers and other users adapt to changing conditions.
He said that by embracing these new technologies and partnerships, NiMet is paving the way for more effective weather services. This forward-looking approach promises significant benefits for smallholder farmers and other stakeholders, enabling better planning, reduced risk, and increased productivity across the country.
Professor Anosike then highlighted several ongoing gaps and challenges, particularly the limited network of in-situ weather stations across Nigeria, as well as the pressing need to expand radar coverage. Following this discussion, he led the AIM for Scale team on a tour of NiMet’s main weather forecasting facility. The tour was designed to demonstrate the agency’s current capabilities and to provide tangible context for the expansion plans under consideration.
At the end, both parties agreed to develop and sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) focusing on joint research initiatives. This MoU is intended to strengthen collaboration and ensure the operational sustainability of the project, supporting the long-term delivery of innovative AI weather services in Nigeria.
