Combating the scourge of vision impairment

The Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare recently disclosed that at least 24 million Nigerians live with vision loss, raising serious concerns about the country’s prospects of tackling this public health challenge. More distressingly, 84 per cent of these cases are preventable or treatable. World Sight Day 2026, with its theme, “Love Your Eyes”, serves as a critical wake-up call to protect the sight of Nigerians at risk of blindness. To appreciate the grim reality of 24 million people experiencing sight loss, we must look beyond the statistics to the human lives at stake. Vision impairment undermines economic development and diminishes the quality of life.

According to the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare and the landmark Nigerian National Blindness and Visual Impairment Survey, vision impairment is unevenly distributed across the country. Available statistics identify the North-east as having the highest prevalence of blindness, at 6.1 per cent among adults aged 40 and older. Research attributes this to factors including high environmental ultraviolet (UV) radiation, lower literacy levels and a severe shortage of specialised medical personnel. The South-west records the lowest prevalence, at 2.8 per cent. This comparatively low rate has been associated with better access to tertiary health institutions, specialised eye-care clinics and more integrated state-level health insurance schemes. Across the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), rural communities record a higher prevalence of vision impairment, at 4.3 per cent, than urban centres, at 3.8 per cent.

The economic and social burden of vision impairment is enormous, diminishing citizens’ productive capacity across various occupations. A farmer who cannot see clearly may struggle to cultivate the land effectively; a labourer with impaired vision may be unable to operate machinery safely; and a finance professional may find it difficult to analyse data accurately. Sightsavers Nigeria estimates that tackling vision loss could unlock up to $2.45 billion in economic benefits. Beyond the direct economic consequences, vision impairment reinforces the cycle of poverty within families. Children may miss school or abandon educational opportunities to care for relatives with visual disabilities, further undermining their own prospects and those of their households.

The fact that millions of Nigerians live with vision impairment is tragic, particularly because the leading causes are often preventable or treatable. These include cataract, refractive error, glaucoma and diabetic retinopathy, as well as the increasingly common problem of digital eye strain. Many affected individuals need only appropriate treatment, a properly prescribed pair of eyeglasses or a routine 20-minute cataract operation to regain their sight. Yet persistent structural inequalities have left millions of rural Nigerians unprotected, as eye care is still widely regarded as a luxury rather than an essential component of primary healthcare.

For many rural residents, accessing eye-care facilities entails long journeys, high transport costs and considerable financial hardship. Unable to overcome these barriers, some resort to harmful traditional practices or purchase cheap, unprescribed glasses from unregulated street vendors, potentially causing irreversible damage to their eyes. Given the substantial funding gaps in eye care, governments at all levels must pursue more aggressive domestic resource mobilisation. Leaders in the banking, telecommunications and manufacturing sectors should also support corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives to expand access to eye-care services and help save the sight of millions of Nigerians.

Lagos and some other states have expanded eyeglasses programmes, distributing more than 1.5 million pairs of reading glasses to adults. Another 1.5 million schoolchildren have undergone free eye screenings across participating states. With cataracts accounting for roughly 50 per cent of blindness cases, state health ministries and the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare have also embarked on initiatives to restore the sight of 25,000 people through heavily subsidised cataract operations across the 36 states by the end of 2027. Other states should emulate Enugu, Edo, Sokoto and Nasarawa by decentralising eye-care services from metropolitan teaching hospitals and establishing permanent, fully equipped vision centres. These centres should serve as regional hubs for basic eye screenings, refractive error correction and early glaucoma detection.

To curb the rising burden of vision impairment, governments at all levels should provide affordable reading glasses and subsidised cataract operations, integrate basic eye screenings into all primary healthcare centres (PHCs) nationwide, and deploy tele-ophthalmology and mobile screening vans to extend services to underserved communities. States should strengthen basic eye-care services within existing PHCs and leverage the capacity of more than 3,000 trained community health workers to screen patients, dispense reading glasses where appropriate and refer advanced cases, including cataracts and diabetic retinopathy, to specialists.

Nigeria must not accept the loss of vision among 24 million citizens as an inevitable reality. Governments at all levels must recognise the protection of sight as essential to educational attainment, economic productivity and poverty alleviation. The current dependence on donor funding should give way to sustainable public policies that mobilise domestic resources, encourage private-sector investment and deploy technology equitably. Only through a coordinated and adequately funded national response can Nigeria build an eye-care system in which clear vision is a basic right, not a privilege, for every citizen.