Should I Stay Or Should I Go?

Today, Wednesday 30th October 2019 was a good day. I attended the 4th African Oil and Gas Talent Summit at the Four Points by Sheraton Hotel, Victoria Island, Lagos where I had the privilege of moderating a panel discussion on the topic: ‘Africa’s Talent Flight: Opportunity or Crisis?’  Two HR leaders, Jibril Saba (Group HR Director at IHS Towers) and Tomi Oni (Group HR Director at TGI Group) served as discussants. Before I opened the floor to the experienced discussants, I shared my thoughts on the global context of talent competitiveness. 

Human capital plays a major role in the projection of national power and pride. The time when a modern economy would expect to survive only on wealth derived from raw material is gone. Absence of a skilled workforce will harm the growth of such countries. Right-thinking governments want their countries to have high-value, high-skill economies, and the first step is to have a well-educated workforce. At the height of the Cold War between the USA and the defunct Soviet Union, both countries asserted their supremacy through dominance in competitive sports and technological superiority - all driven by the advantage conferred on them by their investment in human capital.

People refer to talent migration from Africa as a “crisis”. Is it really a crisis? At the 2019 Ibrahim Governance Weekend in April 2019, Mo Ibrahim said that migration in Africa, and around the world, is largely about aspiration, not desperation. Human mobility, he said, is not a recent phenomenon but a dynamic that has contributed to progress over many centuries. 

Why are people leaving Africa? People have goals and desires that are not being met here and now. Rising poverty, poor health services, low quality of education; absence of economic opportunities for the growing young population; unending internal strife and conflicts and religious extremism. Does tackling all these challenges not present African governments with an opportunity? Countries that are serious about stemming the talent flight and achieving greatness make policy pronouncements on how they intend to stem the outward flow. 

 If you value your talent, you will work to retain it. If you don’t, those who see their value will provide opportunities for them to excel. In 2008, then British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said that the:

 ‘United Kingdom has entered a global skills race where education, knowledge and skills would assume ever-greater importance. The challenge is to outsmart other national economies - whether established or emerging - in the ‘knowledge wars’ of the future. Once, we worried about a global arms race. The challenge this century is a global skills race and that is why we need to push ahead faster with our reforms to extend education opportunities for all. Globalisation dictates that the nations that succeed will be those that bring out the best in people and their potential. Put simply, he said: in the past, we unlocked only some of the talents of some of the people; the challenge now is to unlock all the talents of all of the people.’ 

 It was not an empty boast either…what followed were specific actions which has contributed to the continued status of Britain’s as a ‘destination of choice’.  

The success of the Indian IT industry is the outcome of a well-articulated People Strategy. India has built the world's largest pool of computing talent. This turned India into a destination of choice for major corporations looking for outstanding IT and offshore outsourcing services. The pool of qualified Indians has been translated into what is now called 'demographic dividend' – a situation where your surplus skilled population becomes a competitive advantage that can be exported. China adopted the same strategy to build its competitiveness edge which puts it at par with the United States. Chairman Mao’s successor, Hua Gofeng advocated learning from the 'strong points of all countries including all that is genuinely good in the political, economic, scientific, and technological fields and in literature and art.' The main reason for this was that without strong universities teaching scientific and technical skills, China would get weaker and the economic modernization policies would not be achieved. China deliberately exported her human capital to acquire knowledge required for nation building.

Africa will continue to suffer mass migration because high quality human capital cannot thrive here unless we create the enabling environment. Only governments with a strong social conscience and a deep sense of patriotism can deliver on such objectives. That is a rare commodity among the people currently in power in most African countries. In an article titled African Migration to Europe Is Not a Crisis. It’s an Opportunity published on February 12, 2018, Masood Ahmed and Kate Gough stated that the combination of demographic and economic imbalances means that migration flows between Africa and Europe will almost certainly increase in the coming decades. They predicted that by 2050, sub-Saharan Africa will have 800 million new entrants available to enter the workforce. This population boom will be full of young, energetic job seekers, and local African markets, as presently structured, will not be able to absorb and provide meaningful livelihood opportunities for all of them. At the same time, Europe will continue aging, with labor demand exceeding supply in critical sectors such as nursing and healthcare because it is predicted that by 2050, more than 34 percent of Europe’s population is expected to be age 60 or older.

I see Africa’s rising population from a strategic angle. I see it as a cup that is half full. It could become a demographic dividend with long term economic benefits for Africa. Talent migration could present an opportunity for both Africa and the world if looked at from a dispassionate perspective. Speaking at the Ibrahim Governance Weekend, Akinwunmi Adesina, President of the African Development Bank Group, added that: We always talk about the great potential of our continent, but nobody can eat potential. We need to take this great demographic asset that we have – our young people – and turn it into an economic powerhouse, both for ourselves and the rest of the world…’

I went on to ask the discussants eight questions:

1. Is Talent migration from Africa an opportunity or crisis?
2. What are we doing to cater for Africa’s highly motivated millennial population who are yearning to develop skills and competencies which are not readily available in Africa?
3. What have we done to make Africa a talent destination?
4. Are African nations ready to compete favourably with the rest of the world?
5. Do we have strategies and mechanisms for harvesting some of the enhanced skills and knowledge acquired by Africans in the diaspora? 
6. Can we assure them of a vibrant, safe, prosperous and talent-friendly Africa?  
7. Are we putting in place cross-country policies that can turn Africa into a better for our children?
8. Should I go or should I stay? 

As more young African professionals ask question eight, I invite you to share your thoughts on this topic.