The Minister of State for Health and Social Welfare, Dr. Iziaq Salako, has announced that 47.1 million Nigerians no longer need treatment for lymphatic filariasis (elephantiasis) and onchocerciasis (river blindness).
Salako said Nigeria has surpassed its disease-control targets for the two neglected tropical diseases and carried out far more assessments than initially planned.
He disclosed in Abuja on Thursday at the close-out ceremony of the BLON project, which delivered the largest-ever nationwide assessments for lymphatic filariasis and onchocerciasis across 13 states.
According to the minister, the project was introduced to address critical gaps in Nigeria’s elimination roadmap for the diseases and was supported with $4.9 million in funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
Despite decades of mass drug administration, Salako noted that many implementation units had met World Health Organisation thresholds for stopping treatment but lacked the resources to conduct the required disease-specific assessments. Earlier partner-led efforts were fragmented and expensive, limiting their expansion nationwide.
To address these challenges, Sightsavers collaborated with the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, alongside non-governmental organisations such as Christian Blind Mission International, Helen Keller International, and MITOSATH, to develop and implement a coordinated and cost-effective assessment programme.
The initiative was designed to generate evidence to support the safe cessation of mass drug administration, strengthen health systems, and introduce scalable models to improve efficiency and long-term sustainability.
Salako added that the project, which commenced in 2022 and ended in September 2025, was originally planned as a 17-month intervention but was extended at no extra cost to maximise its impact.
