The Nigerian Optometric Students Association, NOSA, has stepped up its campaign for youth-focused eye care, taking its advocacy directly to the Federal Ministry of Youth Development and ending a three-day programme with vision screening for displaced persons in Abuja. The initiative combined policy engagement, a national summit on youth eye health and a humanitarian outreach at the Durumi Internally Displaced Persons Camp. Vanguard reported the programme on Tuesday, while the ministry-backed summit was also highlighted by Voice of Nigeria.
At the centre of the campaign was the Youth Eye Health Summit, themed “Seeing the Future: Advancing Eye Health for Youth Development in Nigeria.” NOSA President Nicholas Oke led discussions on integrating eye care into youth development programmes, arguing that poor vision can limit learning, productivity and long-term opportunity for young Nigerians. According to Voice of Nigeria, the Ministry of Youth Development said its participation was meant to support policy advocacy, sensitisation and partnerships around youth health, with Minister Ayodele Olawande represented at the event by ministry officials.
Speakers at the summit pressed for urgent reforms. Professor Tuwani Rasengane of Volunteer Optometric Services to Humanity called for coordinated action across Africa to tackle preventable vision loss among young people, while Dr. Ozy Okonokhua, President-Elect of the African Council of Optometry, advocated compulsory vision screening before school admission. Dr. Obinna Ebirim, a senior technical adviser to the minister, said youth eye health would be incorporated into the ministry’s broader preventive health agenda, a move stakeholders said could give the issue more structure in public policy.
The advocacy comes amid wider concern over avoidable vision impairment. The World Health Organization says uncorrected refractive error is the leading cause of vision impairment in both children and adults and notes that untreated vision problems can affect school performance, wellbeing and future productivity. WHO also says access to spectacles remains a major gap in many low-income settings.
Nigeria already has policy tools that could support the push for action. The National Eye Health Strategic Development Plan 2024–2028 says the country’s 2019 National Eye Health Policy provides a framework for scaling eye care, including school eye health services, but implementation remains uneven.
The programme ended with eye checks, health education and referrals for residents of the Durumi IDP camp, where community representatives said no dedicated eye-focused intervention had been carried out in years. Participants closed the summit by backing school-based screening, cheaper corrective services for low-income youth, stronger training for teachers and health workers, and better eye-health data to guide policy.
