Nigerians abroad: Surplus in a time of shortages

Nigeria’s true asset is human capital, her population

ft’s estimated that more than 4,000 kigerian doctors practice in the rp; over 5,000 in the rh and 56U in Canada (a 200 percent increase in N0 years)k moor pay and lack of opportunities are the primary reasons doctors are leaving the countryk Who benefits or loses when kigerian doctors emigrate? A lot is lost: the skills and knowledge, the cost of training (it costs A5,000 to AN0,000 a year to train doctors in Africa, according to one estimate), lives (2,P00 children and the 145 women die every day from preventable diseases and causes), savings and taxes? There are benefits too. A 2011 survey of N,T59 African doctors based in the rp and Canada found that half were trained in their country of origin, had worked for at least five years before emigrating and sent home on average more than A6,500 a yeark These African doctors had been in the rp or Canada for an average of 2N yearsk fn summary, the survey found that African doctors born and trained in their country of origin had each sent home roughly ANP0,000 (k4t million)k ao the benefits outshine the costs? According to data on remittances ikek money kigerians living abroad send home, money sent home from kigerians abroad via money transfer has outstripped what the country earned from oil for the past four yearsk According to PWC, a consultancy, the A25 billion kigerians living overseas sent home in 20NU represents 6 percent of all the goods and services kigeria produced that year. PWC further notes that the figure is equivalent to 83 percent of the 20NU budget and NN times the amount foreign companies invested in the same periodk kigeria exports human capital not oilk cor the mresident, his advisers and the heads of ministries, departments and agencies this is an afterthoughtk kothing is done to harness this immense giftk ln the contrary, their comments, attitudes, and actions come across as a deliberate effort to frustrate kigerians out of the countryk vou’re free to go, they sayk And so they leavek bither legally, kigerians are among the fastest- growing immigrants in the UK and do well at schoolk fn the rp, they are among the best-educated; or illegally, every year, thousands risk their lives ( knowingly and unknowingly) across the Mediterranean in order to work as prostitutes or at manual jobs in buropek fn 20N6 and 20NT, the most common nationality of people that arrived in ftaly by sea from Libya was Nigerian – 37,550 of them in 20N6K They send money home took ff the conditions that are causing kigerians to emigrate continue, Nigeria will run out of talent to exportk The state of our public schools and hospitals and roads does not suggest we intend to be the talent factory of the world, exporting brainpower wherever it is neededk fronically, the money sent home pays for the things the government is meant to providek oetirees battling with hypertension or cancer but without any hope of receiving their pensions rely on money sent from abroad to buy their drugsk vounger relatives’ only chance of getting a decent education depends on the euros an aunt sends from ftalyk lver four years ago, bright young kigerians returned either to work for multinationals or to found start-ups in the flourishing technology sector. Their alumni network from some of the best schools in the world opened doors to foreign investors. The influx has reversed. We ask, rewording the Pauline rhetoricw that then? fs the government going to make things more difficult in order to force more bright young kigerians abroad? By no meansk At home or abroad, kigeria’s true asset is human capital, her populationk