Cairo — If health is wealth, as the saying goes, does Africa have any chance of escaping mass poverty and low rankings in the human development index that measures the quality of life of the world's peoples? Real development is not just about GDP growth numbers, but more about GDP per capita and about human development issues such as the availability of quality healthcare and 'Universal Health Coverage', education and skills, nutrition, safe water, and life expectancy. Africa's health systems are collapsing, worsening the quality of life of millions of Africans who do not have adequate and quality healthcare. Doctors, nurses, pharmacists, laboratory scientists and other health professionals are fleeing abroad in search of greener pastures – a massive 'brain drain'.
Africa has only three percent of the world's health workforce despite being 18 percent of the world's population. The one-directional migration of skilled human capital benefits only the receiving countries and has persisted for several decades. It is progressively getting worse, and it isn't going away soon.
Emigration of skilled talent in many sectors is a challenge across Africa, but the loss is most profound – and its impact heaviest – in healthcare. Consider: 65 percent of Egypt's doctors work abroad. Nigerian lost doctors 9000 doctors between 2016 and 2018, most of them for work in the United Kingdom, the USA and Canada.
In Nigeria we call this the "japa" syndrome from a Yoruba word meaning "to run" o.