By Raymond Ken-Mbata
ABUJA – The Federal Government has announced plans to expand access to affordable eye care services for more than 25 million vulnerable Nigerians, with a target of providing five million reading spectacles and 25,000 subsidised cataract surgeries by 2027.
The Minister of State for Health and Social Welfare, Dr. Iziaq Adekunle Salako, disclosed this while delivering Nigeria’s closing address at the Global Summit for Eye Health in St. John’s, Antigua and Barbuda. The announcement was contained in a press release issued by the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare and signed by the Assistant Director, Information and Public Relations, Ado Bako, on November 3, 2026.
Dr. Salako said the government was committed to reducing avoidable blindness, particularly among women, older persons and people living in rural communities who have limited access to eye care services. He described good vision as an important part of human development, noting that poor eyesight affects education, personal safety, family welfare and people’s ability to work.
To achieve the targets, the government plans to integrate primary eye care into the Basic Health Care Provision Fund (BHCPF), train 15,000 primary healthcare workers and distribute five million pairs of ready-made reading spectacles. It also plans to increase the country’s eye care workforce by 20 per cent and improve effective cataract surgical coverage by 30 percentage points by 2030.
The Minister recalled the JigiBola eye care programme introduced in Lagos State about 25 years ago, where he participated as a young medical officer. He said the initiative had grown into a broader national effort known as the Effective Spectacle Coverage Initiative, or JigiBola 2.0. He also highlighted Nigeria’s participation in the World Health Organization’s SEE 2045 initiative, which aims to accelerate efforts to eliminate blindness caused by cataracts.
Dr. Salako stressed that achieving the targets would require sustained government funding, private-sector investment and support from international development partners. He disclosed that about $60 million had been pledged towards assistive technology, while 15 private-sector commitments were valued at more than $468 million to support eye care programmes. He also acknowledged additional commitments from about 143 organisations outside government.
He called on participating countries and development partners to turn their promises into practical action, particularly by making spectacles, eye examinations, referrals and cataract surgeries more accessible to people in underserved communities. According to him, the success of the global initiative should be measured by the number of people whose sight is protected or restored, rather than the commitments made at meetings.
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