Nigeria Needs Private Sector Investment To Tackle 24m Vision Loss – Minister

Minister of State for Health and Social Welfare, Dr Iziaq Adekunle Salako, has called for increased private sector investment in eye health.

He said about 24 million Nigerians are living with vision loss, much of which is preventable or treatable.

Salako spoke yesterday at a Public-Private Sector Roundtable on Eye Health, in Abuja.

He said preventable vision loss was not only a health challenge but also an economic burden capable of undermining productivity, educational outcomes and household livelihoods.

According to him, conditions such as cataracts, glaucoma, uncorrected refractive errors and digital eye strain were contributing significantly to vision problems among Nigerians.

The minister said, “A worker who cannot see clearly cannot manufacture efficiently, operate heavy machinery safely, analyse financial figures accurately, or till the soil effectively.”

He added that unaddressed vision problems in the banking sector could affect data entry, financial analysis and productivity, while inadequate measures to prevent digital eye strain and computer vision syndrome could further worsen workplace efficiency.

Salako said children with visual impairment could also fall behind in school, thereby affecting the quality of Nigeria’s future workforce.

He noted that reduced vision was costing the country billions of naira annually through early retirement, workplace errors and reduced labour capacity, while families caring for people with avoidable blindness were often forced to divert resources from investment and other productive activities.

The minister said Nigeria could no longer depend heavily on donor funding and overseas development assistance to finance eye health interventions, stressing the need for greater domestic resource mobilisation.

“For decades, apart from budgetary allocations, Nigeria’s eye health interventions have relied heavily on donors and overseas development assistance for which we remain deeply grateful to our development partners.

“However, external funding is changing, global priorities are shifting, and no sovereign nation can sustainably secure the health of its citizens on foreign charity alone,” he said.

He, therefore, urged the private sector to partner with government to expand access to eye care, noting that the existing partnership between First City Monument Bank and Tulsi Chanrai Foundation had reached more than 400,000 Nigerians.

Salako said the model demonstrated how private capital and technical expertise could be combined to address avoidable vision loss, but added that a single bank and foundation could not meet the eye health needs of more than 200 million Nigerians.

He urged banks, manufacturers, telecommunications companies, energy firms and other businesses to integrate eye health into their corporate social responsibility programmes.

According to him, the private sector could support eye care through social impact bonds, blended finance, corporate co-funding pools and other innovative financing mechanisms.

He also called on companies to channel their CSR budgets into structured national programmes such as the National School Eye Health Programme and rural surgical outreach campaigns.

The minister urged telecommunications companies to deploy their infrastructure to expand tele-ophthalmology, remote screening, mobile diagnostics and digital eye health services in underserved communities.

He also challenged manufacturers to invest in the local production of spectacle frames, lenses, eye drops and other ophthalmic consumables.

“Let us build domestic supply chains that make eye care products affordable and accessible to the average Nigerian worker, while creating jobs at home,” Salako said.

He disclosed that Nigeria currently imports more than 90 per cent of basic optical consumables, describing the situation as an opportunity for local manufacturers and investors.

Salako further urged pharmaceutical companies to increase local production of essential eye medicines, including anti-glaucoma drugs, while working with the Federal Ministry of Health to strengthen medicine distribution and cold-chain systems.

He also called on the energy sector to move away from fragmented and occasional medical outreaches towards sustainable community-based eye care centres integrated into existing Primary Healthcare facilities.

He said private investment could also support regional surgical centres capable of reducing the backlog of cataract surgeries, particularly in underserved areas.