Ghana is preparing to transform itself into West Africa’s primary meteorological and climate training hub through the proposed establishment of a World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) Regional Training Centre at the Ghana Meteorological Agency (GMET).
Driven by a strategic collaboration between GMET and the Ministry of Communication, Digital Technology and Innovation, the country is expanding its infrastructure from basic weather forecasting into an operational and institutional anchor for the entire sub-region.
The proposed training centre will help shift the country’s focus from traditional classroom instruction to being a hub to directly connect its operational forecast centres, airports, seaports and observation networks with university research, creating an integrated, practical learning ecosystem.
By bridging the operational skills deficit in high-demand technical areas such as aviation meteorology, marine navigation, hydrology, and agricultural forecasting, the country is building the human resource foundation required to lead climate resilience efforts across the continent.
The nation’s push to become a regional training centre stems directly from the accelerating threats of climate change across the sub-region.
Perennial flooding, severe coastal erosion, and prolonged dry spells continue to disrupt local economies, compromise food and water security, and endanger lives.
Competencies, funding framework
Addressing participants in a stakeholders sensitisation workshop in Accra last Wednesday (August 26), the Director General of GMET, Dr Eric Asuman, emphasised that technical equipment alone could not prevent weather disasters without skilled personnel to process and communicate accurate warnings.
He explained that the country had built a distinct regional niche in aeronautical and marine meteorology, having already provided fee-paying training modules for personnel from Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea and Togo.
Dr Asuman said the regional centre would scale up these specialised programmes to serve the entire sub-region while also training local information users to interpret climate products effectively.
He stated that WMO accreditation incurred no formal fees, with initial preparatory work funded through GMET’s state budget, initial infrastructure nearing completion at GMET premises, and future operations designed to be self-sustaining through sub-regional tuition fees and development partner projects.
On operational challenges, the Director General highlighted ongoing efforts to transition GMET from an agency to an authority, while it was also aggressively modernising, augmenting 21 manual stations with 50 automated weather stations.
“Long-term plans include securing investor backing for a nationwide weather radar network to drastically improve localised precipitation forecasting,” Dr Asuman stated.
Accreditation process, regional impact
The lead consultant for the project and former WMO Regional Programmes Manager, Dr Ernest Afiesimama, clarified that the accreditation process is currently in its foundational needs-assessment phase.
He stressed that the objective extended beyond generic academic instruction, focusing strictly on operational competence, ensuring that staff possessed the practical ability to perform forecasting tasks effectively to save lives and property.
Dr Afiesimama said once designated, the centre would remain a permanent institutional asset to continuously refresh human capital across West Africa.
