• Login
NORVANREPORTS.COM |  Business News, Insurance, Taxation, Oil & Gas, Maritime News, Ghana, Africa, World
  • Home
  • News
    • General
    • Political
  • Economy
  • Business
    • Agribusiness
    • Aviation
    • Banking & Finance
    • Energy
    • Insurance
    • Manufacturing
    • Markets
    • Maritime
    • Real Estate
    • Tourism
    • Transport
  • Technology
    • Telecom
    • Cyber-security
    • Cryptocurrency
    • Tech-guide
    • Social Media
  • Features
    • Interviews
    • Opinions
  • Reports
    • Banking/Finance
    • Insurance
    • Budgets
    • GDP
    • Inflation
    • Central Bank
    • Sec/Gse
  • Lifestyle
    • Sports
    • Entertainment
    • Travel
    • Environment
    • Weather
  • NRTV
    • Audio
    • Video
No Result
View All Result
No Result
View All Result
NORVANREPORTS.COM |  Business News, Insurance, Taxation, Oil & Gas, Maritime News, Ghana, Africa, World
No Result
View All Result
Home Business

African brain drain: ‘90% of my friends want to leave’

3 years ago
in Business, Editor's pick, Features, highlights, Home, home-news, latest News
4 min read
0 0
0
68
VIEWS
Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on Linkedin

African brain drain: ‘90% of my friends want to leave’

A new survey of more than 4,500 young people in Africa, aged 18-24, has found that 52% of them are likely to consider emigrating in the next few years, citing economic hardship and education opportunities as the top reasons.

The BBC spoke to five young people in Nigeria and South Africa who said they do not feel safe in their countries and lack access to work opportunities, but for those in Ghana the picture looks very different.

“The Nigerian insecurity is so appalling,” says 18-year-old Ayoade Oni from Lagos. This is one of the main reasons he wants to leave Nigeria.

Last year he was nearly kidnapped in “broad daylight”. He was on his way home from the phone repair shop when a gang approached him, demanding he hand over his belongings.

He resisted and was “walking very fast” to try and get away. He thought he had found refuge when he stumbled on a nearby shop with people inside who tried to lure him in, telling him he was safe with them.

But it was a trap.

RelatedPosts

Foreign Capital Inflows Into Banking Sector Hit Five-Year High in 2024

Electricity is Getting Cheaper Across Africa

Summary of Events Following Confirmation of Deaths of Defence and Environment Ministers, Six Others in Military Helicopter Crash

Suddenly, a bus driver pulled up and warned him the people were “kidnappers”, instructing him to get inside the vehicle. “That saved me that day,” he recalls.

Nigeria is currently facing a kidnapping for ransom crisis, with perpetrators collecting millions of dollars over the years, according to a Lagos-based think-tank.

“I can’t go out at night, my parents won’t even allow me,” Mr Oni said. They have set him a curfew to be home by 18.30 each night.

A “high unemployment rate, poor health sector, low standard of living [and] little to no job opportunities”, are the other reasons Mr Oni cites for wanting to leave the country.

As for eventually getting a job after he graduates with a degree in Computer Science, he is not optimistic. Most graduates are left with no option but to compete for the “few employment positions available, with most people being employed by connections or corruption”, he said.

If he left Nigeria, and relocated to Canada where he has his heart set on, he would have no intention of moving back. Most of his friends feel the same: “90% if not all of them” want out, he says.

The statistics from the African Youth Survey 2022, carried out in 15 countries by the South African Ichikowitz Family Foundation, back up Mr Oni’s pessimism.

Young Nigerians have the most negative opinion in the whole continent about the direction their country is headed, with 95% saying things are going badly. Of all those surveyed, just 28% felt positively about the trajectory of their nation.

The world needs to wake up and invest in Africa, so that young Africans do not feel they have to move abroad to achieve their dreams at the expense of their home countries, according to the man behind the survey, Ivor Ichikowitz.

“It’s bigger than a brain drain,” Mr Ichikowitz told the BBC Newsday programme. “This group of people, 18 to 24 year olds in Africa, are saying: ‘We are going to improve our lives, even if it means having to up and leave and go somewhere else.'”

He said the fact so many young Africans wanted to move abroad could cause a migration crisis, describing it as “alarming”.

In the previous edition of the African Youth Survey conducted before the pandemic, most of the young people interviewed wanted to stay in their home nation and build a life for themselves there, Mr Ichikowitz said.

A lot of the young people his foundation spoke to wanted to move to South Africa, Europe or the US. But although South Africa was seen as “the holy grail” for many in other African countries, those in South Africa begged to differ, and wanted to move to the US or Europe, he said.

It is in the interests of the whole world to keep young Africans, who estimates say will make up 42% of the world’s young people by 2030, “constructively engaged in Africa”, Mr Ichikowitz said.

That is exactly what some young people in Ghana who the BBC spoke to plan on doing.

Ghanaians feel the second-most positive on the continent about the future of their country after Rwanda, with 56% saying they are pleased.

“I can make it in Ghana because even though there are not strong institutions, and our systems seem to be weak – the lack of these could also mean that a smart social climber can break those barriers,” says 24-year-old Julius Kwame Anthony, the head of the National Union of Ghana Students.

“Relocating abroad may look rosy but nothing is really promised out there,” he continues.

Similar sentiments were echoed by 33-year-old businessman Ernest Larmie: “This is home, if I’m able to solve the problems here, when the next generation comes, they can also benefit ,” he says, questioning the logic behind moving abroad, just to help another country develop at the expense of your own.

‘Women are not safe’

But for others, passionate arguments about developing their community will not wash, and the trauma they have faced in their home country has left them itching to leave.

One young South African woman, who requested to remain anonymous, says the high crime rate in the country has made her want to emigrate, on top of her struggles to find a job since graduating last year.

She says she was raped in 2019 while walking from campus to her student accommodation and has not felt safe since.

Pre-pandemic, between 2018 and 2019, sexual assault and rape counted among the crimes in the country with the biggest increases.

“It just feels like the odds are against us as young women. Not only can we not roam the streets safely, we are also battling with unemployment.”

Another young South African woman, Mapula Maake, 23, agrees that the employment situation in South Africa is poor, and this is why she is thinking of moving abroad.

“Migration might be the only solution to this rather saturated job market,” she says.

In March South Africa recorded a record high unemployment rate of 35.3%.

Ms Maake describes it as a “national crisis” and pleads that “the government should be taking steps to invest in graduates”.

Tags: African brain drain: '90% of my friends want to leave'Nigeria
No Result
View All Result

Highlights

FDI Rises to 3-Year High as Reforms Boost Investor Confidence

Togo is Flexing its Unrivaled Maritime Power

Parliament Expresses Grief Over Death of Ministers, MP and 6 Others in Military Helicopter Crash

GSE Composite Index Up 46.51% YTD as Market Capitalization Hits GHS 147.91 Billion

Global Financial Bias Costs Africa $75 Billion Annually

GFA President.Set to Visit Gold Stars, Asante Kotoko, and Police Ladies to Strengthen CAF Campaigns

Trending

Features

Foreign Capital Inflows Into Banking Sector Hit Five-Year High in 2024

August 7, 2025

Foreign Capital Inflows Into Banking Sector Hit Five-Year High in 2024 Foreign capital inflows into Nigeria’s banking...

Electricity is Getting Cheaper Across Africa

August 7, 2025

Summary of Events Following Confirmation of Deaths of Defence and Environment Ministers, Six Others in Military Helicopter Crash

August 7, 2025

FDI Rises to 3-Year High as Reforms Boost Investor Confidence

August 7, 2025

Togo is Flexing its Unrivaled Maritime Power

August 7, 2025

Who we are?

NORVANREPORTS.COM |  Business News, Insurance, Taxation, Oil & Gas, Maritime News, Ghana, Africa, World

NorvanReports is a unique data, business, and financial portal aimed at providing accurate, impartial reporting of business news on Ghana, Africa, and around the world from a truly independent reporting and analysis point of view.

© 2020 Norvanreports – credible news platform.
L: Hse #4 3rd Okle Link, Baatsonaa – Accra-Ghana T:+233-(0)26 451 1013 E: news@norvanreports.com info@norvanreports.com
All rights reserved we display professionalism at all stages of publications

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Business
    • Agribusiness
    • Aviation
    • Energy
    • Insurance
    • Manufacturing
    • Real Estate
    • Maritime
    • Tourism
    • Transport
    • Banking & Finance
    • Trade
    • Markets
  • Economy
  • Reports
  • Technology
    • Cryptocurrency
    • Cyber-security
    • Social Media
    • Tech-guide
    • Telecom
  • Features
    • Interviews
    • Opinions
  • Lifestyle
    • Entertainment
    • Sports
    • Travel
    • Environment
    • Weather
  • NRTV
    • Audio
    • Video

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Create New Account!

Fill the forms bellow to register

All fields are required. Log In

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
NORVANREPORTS.COM | Business News, Insurance, Taxation, Oil & Gas, Maritime News, Ghana, Africa, World
This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this website you are giving consent to cookies being used. Visit our Privacy and Cookie Policy.
We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with it.