The Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMet) has called for synergy among African countries to proactively combat the negative impact of climate change.

The Director General (DG) of NiMet, Professor Mansur Bako Matazu, spoke at the opening ceremony of a two-week capacity building workshop on Early Warning System organised by NiMet and the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) for 16 African countries at the Regional Training Centre, Lagos, on Monday, stating that weather had no boundary, was no respecter of political or geographical affiliations, hence the need for collaboration among stakeholders.

Matazu, represented by the Director, Weather Forecasting at NiMet, Dr Daniel Okafor, stressed that the workshop was aimed at building capacities of meteorologists and climate scientists across the sub-region in achieving the goal of the Early Warning for All (EW4ALL) initiative.

The DG, who doubles as the Permanent Representative of Nigeria with the WMO, emphasised that weather conditions cut across boundaries, hence that the African continent needed to step up its game in a bid to forestall negative impact of climate.

He said, ''All nations on earth must, therefore, synergise to proactively combat the negative impacts of cringing climate by providing actionable Impact-based products and services towards mitigating the impact of these weather and climate extreme events on lives and property across the globe.''

The countries at the workshop are Benin Republic, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Cameron, CAR, Congo, The Gambia, Cote D'Ivoire, Guinea Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Togo and Gabon.