Africa's Brain Drain

Excellent article by the BBC today entitled Addressing Nigeria's brain drain about the inequities and challenges academics and researchers face in Africa. And the intense economic attraction of moving to wealthy nations. The problem is acute. All sorts of talented people are drawn away towards higher pay and better working conditions -- doctors, nurses, pharmacists, accountants, lawyers, professionals, tradesmen, and more. And yet these talented people are precisely those who can help build up local prosperity. Many do indeed wish they could stay at home, but the practical facts are that -- today -- their families and loved ones and they themselves are better off migrating. I hope that that governments realize this, that they enact more business-friendly policies, that they welcome developmental entrepreneurs -- such as those from my class and the MIT $100K Entrepreneurship Competition -- and that they embrace inflows of both financial and human capital.