Director-General of the Nigerian Meteorological Agency, NiMet, Prof. Mansur Matazu, revealed on Wednesday that Nigeria lost about $4.6bn in economic damage to floods in 2022.
While expressing concern that the lost had negative effects on the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), he, however, said the country was recovering from the devastation.
Matazu stated this at a one-way high level advocacy workshop on ramping up access to climate information services for national development and food security in Nigeria organised by the Human and Environmental Development Agenda (HEDA).
While quoting a World Bank Survey commissioned by the ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, he said the report was from a rapid assessment of cost implications of 2022 flood damages in form of livelihoods, farmlands and infrastructure.
“This flood has cost the country over 4.6 billion dollars and that is a significant weight on our GDP. Notwithstanding, we are recovering very fast and the goverment has already commissioned a presidential committee to come up with lasting solutions on flood and see how we can better utilised the flood waters which mostly come up from within the country to improve our agriculture.
Matazu added that the agency was working assiduously to align with the present government’s policy in achieving food security, sustainability and availability to all Nigerians.
Describing climate change as a serious challenge in the country, he said there are local evidence of climate change in Nigeria, adding that the “agency would leverage on partnership to be able to work with relevant stakeholders to come up with localised adaptation and mitigative measures that Nigerians will adopt in proffering climate smart agricultural advisories and services through agriculture extension agents system to be able yield and thereby increasing the food security and stability in the country”.
Executive Secretary, HEDA, Sulaimon Arigbabu, blamed lack of access to climate information services for the loss suffered by farmers caused by flooding.
According to him, Nigeria’s food crisis and insecurity are driven by resource constraints triggered by climate change.
He said: “You will recall, there was a major flooding happened in Nigeria last year. What many did not know is that something close to that happened this year, maybe not as negatively as that of last year but because the impact of last year’s flooding still lingers in communities, so this is an additional stress for us, especially for our food producing community.
“We went around many communities and realized that farmers continue to suffer even post flooding. This is because the kind of support that they will need to be able to lift themselves out of poverty, to be able to lift this country out of food insecurity and potential crisis may not be reaching them. There are many issues, of course, bedeviling agricultural production in Nigeria, but a major one that usually don’t get the required attention is lack of access to climate information services.
“We know of course that our partner on this project, NiMet produces seasonal climate predictions. They also have the regular forecast but this is not getting to the farmers. Its needs to get to the farmers in three important ways. One, it needs to get to the agric policy authorities at all states ahead of the planting season, so that the planning for each year’s production needs to be made in that regard.
“Information also needs to get to the farmer when they are about to start preparation for planting because almost often because of changing rainy pattern, many atimes farmers go to production before the time, and they lose a lot. And sometimes they don’t get information about what to plant and what not.
“We were in Adamawa last year and many maize farmers were crying that they wish they had information, they would had planted sugar cane. And that would not have been destroyed by the flooding that they encounter.
“So that’s the reason why we feel that we need to call attention to the fact that we need access to climate information services for all Nigerians not just farmers, but importantly for our farmers. It will help people to avoid poverty, help people to defeat hunger, and reduce the condolences to affected families.”
