Continent Losing Human Capital

Zephania Ubwani (The Nation)- Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni said Sunday that Africa has lost one third of its human capital and is continuing to lose its skilled personnel at an increasing rate.

He told the 4th African World Business Congress at a tourist lodge near Arusha that an estimated 20,000 doctors, university lecturers, engineers and other professionals are leaving the continent annually since 1990.

“There are currently over 300,000 highly qualified Africans in the Diaspora, 30,000 of which have PhDs” he said in a speech read on his behalf by the Ugandan minister of state, Foreign Afffiars Mr Isaac Musumba.

The Ugandan leader said at the time Africa is losing its skilled workforce, the continent was spending $ 4 billion a year to employ 100,000 experts from Western countries described as “technical assistance”.

He told over 400 business executives from across the world that the money spent by African countries in hiring the foreign technical experts represented 35 per cent of total official development aid to the continent.

Must tap and utilise

Mr Museveni said that for Africa to advance, it must tap and utilise the scientific and technological know how and skills of the African diaspora.

He said the African Union has already taken a positive step by declaring Africans in diaspora a formidable force for the continent’s transformation. The World Bank, in its Global Development 2005 report, indicated that remittances to developing countries from overseas residents and non-resident workers increased to $ 126 billion in 2004.

The Ugandan leader said in order for Foreign Direct Investment and capital to bring any meaningful transformation to the continent, the international trade must be transparent and relevant.

He said although export growth from the continent has more than doubled in the last ten years with the demand for African manufactured goods increasing in Europe and the US, poverty was still rampant in the continent.

“Poverty in many countries on the continent is still rampant, making the economic growth fragile. Domestic savings rates remain will below the levels required to grow at the target rate of seven per cent” he stated.

The situation, according to him, has been compounded by natural disasters such as floods and droughts, external shocks such as the recent increase in oil prices and cross border spill overs of civil conflicts.

He said Uganda has opened doors to foreign investors in order to attract the requisite investment and capital. Recently, the country licensed close to 4,000 entrepreneurs of various sizes committing over $ 8 billion in actual investment for various projects.

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