The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) says Nigeria is targeting full coverage of citizens with a multi-hazard early warning system by 2027, through the “Early Warnings for All” (EW4All) initiative.

The Director-General (D-G) of NEMA, Zubaida Umar, stated this on Tuesday in Abuja, during a coordination meeting ahead of the official launch of EW4All in Nigeria.

EW4All is a global initiative that aims to ensure that every human on earth is protected from hazardous weather, water, and climate events by life-saving early warning systems by 2027.

The meeting brought together Chief Executive Officers of National Space Research and Development Agency (NASRDA), the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMet), the Nigeria Hydrological Services Agency (NIHSA) and the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC).

Ms Umar said the meeting was convened to align roles for Nigeria’s multi-hazard early warning system, strengthen Nigeria’s disaster risk management architecture and ensure seamless inter-agency collaboration.

She noted that Nigeria continues to face increasing risks from floods, droughts, windstorms, heat stress and disease outbreaks.

“In 2025 alone, over 1.2 million people were affected by floods in Nigeria. The Secretary General of the UN has called EW4All a ‘survival agenda for humanity’ and for Nigeria, it is also a national security and development agenda.

“We therefore gather today to agree on a common pathway towards a successful national launch, and more importantly, to ensure that in Nigeria, every person is covered by an early warning system by year 2027,” Ms Umar said.

She explained that the initiative has four pillars with clear institutional leads.

She said that NEMA and NASRDA would lead on Disaster Risk Knowledge pillar, NiMet and NIHSA would lead Detection and Forecasting, while NCC would lead Warning Dissemination.

Ms Umar added that NEMA would also coordinate the preparedness and response pillar.

She said that the meeting was also organised to resuscitate quarterly coordination meetings among the agencies to review hazards, assess preparedness and resolve operational challenges early.

She said the collaboration aligns with the Sendai Framework, SDGs, Paris Agreement and the Renewed Hope Agenda of President Bola Tinubu, urging the agencies to approach the deliberations with openness.

“NEMA is ready to coordinate but will only succeed if we move as one,” she said.

In his remarks, Executive Vice-Chairman of NCC, Aminu Maida, commended NEMA for bringing the agencies together.

Ms Maida said early warning systems were critical to protecting citizens from unplanned disasters, adding that joint action would deliver results with fewer resources.

On his part, Director-General of NASRDA, Matthew Adepoju, said the agency would provide technical support through data and space technology.

Mr Adepoju noted that NASRDA’s mandate includes disaster management, promising that the agency would support the fulfilment of Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda.

Also speaking, the DG of NIHSA, Umar Mohammed, described early warning as “a national corps for preparedness.”

Mr Mohammed said the goal was to prepare before disasters occur and reduce impact to the barest minimum.

Regional Representative of the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction, Muliro Mashauri, described the platform as “unique” in West Africa.

Mr Mashauri noted that bringing regulators such as NCC into disaster planning was important and urged the agencies to harmonise warnings into “one bulletin” to avoid confusion.

He added that Nigeria has the capacity to meet and exceed the 2027 target, citing Nigeria’s satellite support during the Katrina event as evidence of existing capacity. 

(NAN)