With its current population at 167 million, Nigeria is the most populous African country. It has the highest sickle cell disease (SCD) burden in the world with ~19 of 1000 births affected with the disease. Although there have been several SCD associations and other non-governmental organizations devoted to the disease, a concerted truly national advocacy group had been lacking. At the global SCD congress in Accra in July 2010, the Nigerian delegates met and decided to launch the Nigerian Sickle Cell Disease Network, bringing together Nigerian doctors, scientists, NGOs and patients with interest in the disease, both within the country and in the Diaspora.

The Sickle Cell Support Society of Nigeria has made progress in advocacy for the control of sickle cell disease, building collaborations for scientific research, establishing guidelines for uniform management of patients with the disease at primary, secondary, and tertiary health care levels. This has been done by working closely with the government, professional groups both within the country and in Diaspora.These are indeed very exciting times in the field of SCD in Nigeria. We need to expand the activities of the network and we seek more international partnerships.