Nigeria loses an estimated $1.6 billion annually in productivity due to vision impairment, highlighting the economic consequences of inadequate access to eye care, Professor Ada Aghaji has said.
Aghaji, Professor of Ophthalmology and Eye Health Systems at the University of Nigeria, disclosed this while delivering the institution’s 254th Inaugural Lecture, titled “Let There Be Sight: Building Sustainable Eye Health Systems for All in Africa,” on October 29, 2026.
She said the economic loss across Africa was estimated at $9 billion annually, while the global figure stood at $410 billion, warning that avoidable blindness remained a major obstacle to economic development, education and social inclusion.
According to her, millions of people across the continent continue to experience preventable or treatable vision loss because of poverty, inadequate healthcare infrastructure, shortages of trained personnel and weak referral systems.
She stressed that eye health should no longer be regarded solely as a medical concern but also as an economic and development priority, given its impact on livelihoods, household welfare and national productivity.
Illustrating the human cost of the problem, Aghaji recounted the experiences of two children born with congenital rubella syndrome, a condition that can cause cataracts, hearing impairment and other disabilities.
While a Nigerian child experienced delays in accessing treatment and rehabilitation and eventually became blind, a Somali refugee child in England received timely surgery, spectacles and hearing aids, giving him an opportunity to learn and develop.
She said the contrasting experiences demonstrated how access to healthcare, rather than the medical condition alone, could determine a person’s future.
According to her, the availability of medical expertise does not automatically guarantee treatment, particularly where patients cannot afford care, health workers fail to identify conditions early or referral systems are ineffective.
She argued that much of the vision loss could be prevented or treated through relatively affordable interventions, including spectacles, cataract surgery and routine eye examinations at primary healthcare facilities.
Economic Benefits of Investment
Making a case for increased investment in eye health, Aghaji said estimates presented in her lecture indicated that a global investment of about $7 billion between 2026 and 2030 could generate approximately $199 billion in economic benefits.
This represents an estimated return of $28 for every dollar invested.
For Nigeria, she said an investment of about $110 million could generate economic benefits estimated at $2.45 billion over the same period.
Although the figures were projections rather than guaranteed returns, she said they demonstrated the economic value of addressing avoidable vision impairment.
She explained that restoring people’s sight would improve their ability to work, pursue education, operate businesses and live independently, while reducing the burden of caregiving on families.
Aghaji also emphasised that increasing investment alone would not resolve the problem unless resources were directed towards the specific challenges preventing people from accessing effective treatment.
To illustrate this, she presented four hypothetical countries with similarly low cataract surgical coverage but different underlying challenges.
While one lacked trained surgeons and equipment, another had healthcare services that patients could not afford. A third had weak systems for identifying and referring patients, while the fourth recorded poor visual outcomes despite performing surgeries.
She said the examples showed why healthcare interventions must be tailored to the particular barriers within each system.
According to her, increasing the number of surgeons would not help patients who could not afford transportation, just as providing free surgery would achieve little if people requiring treatment were not identified.
She maintained that the success of eye-health programmes should be measured by improvements in people’s vision rather than the number of consultations conducted, spectacles distributed or surgeries performed.
She further called for equity to remain central to eye-health policies, particularly to ensure that women, low-income households, rural communities and persons with disabilities were not excluded from improved services.
Rwanda’s Eye-Care Model
Using Rwanda as an example, Aghaji highlighted how sustained government commitment, coordinated partnerships, workforce development and the integration of eye care into primary healthcare could improve access to treatment.
She said the country had expanded services by training nurses and community health workers and strengthening connections between primary healthcare facilities and specialist services.
However, she cautioned that expanding access also increased demand for treatment, while transportation costs and other financial barriers could continue to prevent patients from receiving care.
She said Rwanda’s experience demonstrated that progress required consistent leadership, coordination and continuous monitoring of results.
Aghaji also cited her research involving 165 primary healthcare facilities across six Nigerian states, which showed that states where allocated primary eye-care budgets were released recorded 16 times as many cataract referrals as states where the funds were not released.
She said health insurance and effective coordination also contributed significantly to improving access to eye-care services.
According to her, the findings demonstrated that beyond budgetary allocations, governments must ensure that approved funds were released and effectively utilised.
Call for Collective Action
With an estimated 110 million Africans living with vision loss, Aghaji said addressing the challenge required more than the efforts of ophthalmologists and specialist hospitals.
She called for the integration of eye care into primary healthcare services, stronger referral systems, improved financial protection and increased investment in accessible treatment.
She said governments must provide the necessary leadership, while the private sector, professional associations, civil society organisations and development partners should support efforts to strengthen healthcare delivery.
She also identified opportunities for businesses to invest in affordable spectacles, workplace eye-health programmes, technological innovation and service delivery.
Development partners, she added, should align their interventions with national priorities and support sustainable healthcare systems rather than programmes that depend entirely on temporary funding.
Aghaji said the 2026 Global Summit for Eye Health in Antigua and Barbuda provided an opportunity to accelerate global efforts through increased investment and stronger commitments.
However, she maintained that the impact of such commitments should ultimately be assessed through improved access to effective treatment, better visual outcomes and greater equity.
She said Africa could not achieve its full economic and development potential while millions of people continued to live with preventable blindness and visual impairment.
Aghaji therefore urged governments and other stakeholders to move beyond promises of increased expenditure and focus on building sustainable eye-health systems capable of delivering accessible and effective services.
She said restoring sight should not be a privilege reserved for a few but an opportunity available to all Africans.
