FG targets 25,000 cataract surgeries, five million spectacles by 2027

The Minister of State for Health and Social Welfare, Iziaq Salako, and other experts at the Global Summit for Eye Health

Nigeria has pledged to provide five million pairs of reading spectacles and 25,000 fully subsidised cataract surgeries by 2027 as part of efforts to expand access to eye care services nationwide.

The Minister of State for Health and Social Welfare, Iziaq Salako, announced the commitments at the Global Summit for Eye Health held in St John’s, Antigua and Barbuda, on 2 November.

Mr Salako, who delivered the closing address at the summit, said the federal government would also train 15,000 primary healthcare workers and integrate primary eye care services into the Basic Health Care Provision Fund (BHCPF).

He said the commitments formed part of Nigeria’s efforts to eliminate avoidable vision loss and expand access to quality eye care, particularly among vulnerable populations.

According to him, the government is targeting more than 25 million vulnerable Nigerians, especially women, older people and residents of underserved rural communities.

Mr Salako said Nigeria would also work to increase its active eye care workforce by 20 per cent and raise its national Effective Cataract Surgical Coverage (eCSC) by 30 percentage points by 2030.

He said the government would mobilise domestic public and private sector resources and collaborate with Commonwealth and international partners to ensure the commitments translate into measurable progress.

Mr Salako said Nigeria’s approach would build on the Effective Spectacle Coverage Initiative Nigeria, also known as JigiBola 2.0, which draws inspiration from the JigiBola programme introduced in Lagos State about 25 years ago.

He recalled volunteering as a young medical officer during the original programme, which provided free eye screening, spectacles and cataract surgeries.

Mr Salako said the initiative was now being expanded through a national programme to improve access to eye care.

Mr Salako said one of the major outcomes of the summit was a commitment to eliminate cataract-related blindness through the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) Global Cataract Surgery Initiative, known as SEE 2045.

He said Nigeria was among the beneficiary countries under the initiative, alongside Antigua and Barbuda, Bangladesh, Tanzania and China.

According to him, the initiative makes cataract elimination the second global elimination target for a non-communicable disease in WHO history.

He urged participating countries to demonstrate that expanding access to quality cataract surgery, including in rural communities, was achievable.

Mr Salako also called for proper documentation of successes and outcomes to enable countries to share implementation strategies and address the backlog of cataract surgeries.

He said avoidable vision loss had consequences beyond individual health, affecting education, household income, road safety and national productivity.

“When a child cannot see the chalkboard, or an artisan or farmer is blinded by cataracts or uncorrected refractive errors, an entire community pays the price,” he said.

Mr Salako said the summit secured $60 million in philanthropic commitments to support assistive technology, alongside 15 private-sector commitments valued at more than $468 million to accelerate eye care implementation.

He added that organisations had made about 143 other commitments beyond those made by governments.

Mr Salako said the commitments demonstrated the importance of partnerships between governments, the private sector, philanthropic organisations and international development partners in improving global eye health.

He called on participating countries to sustain the momentum generated at the summit and ensure that the commitments translated into tangible improvements for people living with avoidable vision loss.

“Let us return to our respective nations as champions of sight, holding ourselves accountable to the millions who are waiting not for miracles, but for a pair of glasses, a timely referral, or a fifteen-minute surgical intervention that can restore their world,” he said.