The Federal Nigeria Society for the Blind (FNSB) has unveiled a comprehensive roadmap aimed at expanding access to services, strengthening funding streams, enhancing governance frameworks, and improving long-term outcomes for persons with visual impairments.
The roadmap was presented by the Chairman of FNSB, Mrs. Arit Tunde-Imoyo, during the Society’s annual leadership retreat held in Lagos. She said the retreat was designed to chart the organisation’s strategic direction over the next two to five years, rather than merely review past achievements.
“In a rapidly changing environment, we must ask not only what we have achieved, but what we must become,” she stated, stressing the need to broaden the Society’s reach and engage earlier with newly diagnosed individuals who could benefit from rehabilitation and vocational training.
According to her, planned interventions include increasing trainee admissions in a sustainable manner, strengthening collaboration with organisations serving the visually impaired, establishing referral pathways with schools and eye hospitals, and intensifying nationwide awareness campaigns. “The key question is not whether there is need, but whether our systems are designed to meet it,” she added.
On funding and sustainability, Mrs. Tunde-Imoyo called for structured engagement with federal and state governments, alongside long-term partnerships with at least four committed organisations within the next five years.
She also emphasised the need to strengthen the Society’s capacity to attract and manage international grants, improve governance standards, and enhance reporting systems to boost donor confidence. “Vision without resources is aspiration. Sustainability demands structure,” she said.
She further proposed the establishment of a robust After-Care Programme to support graduates, partnerships with technology firms to expand employment opportunities, the digitisation of the Society’s library into an assistive technology-enabled learning hub, and the deployment of data systems to track graduate employment and long-term impact.
In her remarks, Chairman, Board of Governors, FNSB Vocational Training Centre (VTC), Mrs. Ayopeju Njideaka, said the Society remains committed to challenging the perception that blindness marks the end of productivity, promoting instead the belief that visual impairment represents “another way of living life.”
She highlighted the Society’s strengths, including its national focus on individualised rehabilitation, long-standing reputation for excellence, dedicated workforce, strategic location in Lagos, established partnerships and expansive facilities. However, she identified challenges such as limited classrooms and modern laboratories, low enrolment, curriculum gaps, funding constraints and accessibility limitations.
Njideaka also outlined emerging opportunities in the growing national focus on disability inclusion, government and private sector partnerships, renewable energy initiatives, rising demand for digital literacy, accreditation processes, entrepreneurship development and collaborations with technology firms.
She stressed the need for curriculum updates, ICT upgrades, structured staff capacity building, entrepreneurship and freelancing pathways, and the integration of emerging technologies, including artificial intelligence, into training programmes.
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