The Director General of the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMet) has endorsed an upgraded Maproom developed with SEI and the regional centre AGRHYMET, with funding from the Gates Foundation. The work follows a similar process in Ethiopia, which began with a consultative workshop between the Ethiopian Meteorological Institute (EMI) and SEI in June 2026. In both countries, the current data library-based system is being replaced by a fully open-source, Python-based platform.

The Maproom is part of ENACTS, which helps national meteorological and hydrological services overcome one of the biggest barriers to effective climate services: the lack of complete, high-quality climate data. ENACTS combines quality-controlled station observations with satellite rainfall estimates and reanalysis products to generate high-resolution datasets for rainfall, temperature and other climate variables.

ENACTS also provides tools to help users visualize, analyse and apply this information, including the Climate Data Tool (CDT), Automatic Weather Station Data Tool (ADT), Data Sharing Tool (DST) and the interactive online Maprooms.

Implemented in more than 20 countries, it combines these tools with training so that national institutions can run and sustain the service themselves. ENACTS was previously hosted at the International Research Institute for Climate and Society (IRI) and is now hosted by SEI, which will support the program’s continued development and expansion across Africa and beyond.

What the upgrade changes

• National ownership – EMI, NiMet and AGRHYMET can manage, customize and maintain the platform themselves, rather than relying on the current data library-based system.
• Improved usability – a cleaner interface, faster performance, smoother navigation and better visualization tools make the platform easier to use, especially for first-time users.
• New products – the Climate Change Projections and Teleconnections Maprooms help users understand large-scale climate patterns such as the El Niño–Southern Oscillation and the Indian Ocean Dipole, supporting both short-term forecasting and long-term planning.
• Greater flexibility – the new architecture makes it easier to add products for water resources, disaster risk management, agriculture and health, supporting a broader range of decision-makers beyond traditional climate monitoring.

The platforms are being built with climate information producers and users involved from the outset, so that they reflect real operational needs.

This responds to growing demand from sectors such as health, agriculture, water and disaster management for integrated climate-risk information, not just historical data.

Early responses

The upgrades have been well received. In Ethiopia, participants at the EMI workshop welcomed the new system’s cleaner interface and expanded capabilities, noting that many of the concerns they had raised about the existing platform were already being addressed. In Nigeria, the NiMet Director General singled out the Climate Change Projections and Teleconnections Maprooms as valuable for both operational services and strategic planning.

The transition to a more flexible, open-source Maproom is ultimately about strengthening national ownership of climate services. The feedback from NiMet and other users is helping us build a platform that can evolve with their needs and support decision-making across sectors, from agriculture to water and disaster management.

Tufa Dinku, Senior Research Fellow at SEI Africa

Looking ahead

Ethiopia and Nigeria are progressing from consultation and development toward fully functional, nationally owned Maproom platforms. In Ethiopia, workshop feedback will guide further development and testing, followed by technical capacity building, user training and a public launch. In Nigeria, an operational demonstration with staff training and a public showcase are scheduled, alongside efforts to formalize the NiMet–SEI collaboration, establish the hosting infrastructure and strengthen coordination with AGRHYMET.