Africa needs its brains

 Patrick Mayoh

Dr James Mayinka is from Zimbabwe. After achieving a First Class in Electrical Engineering from the University of Zimbabwe, he moved to Oxford University in the UK to pursue a Dphil, an Msc and an MA in Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science. Today, in addition to working as a Director in the states for the Mc Kinsey Global Research Instute--probably one of if not the best business research institute in the world—he is also a Faculty Exchange Follow at MIT not to mention his role as a visiting scientist to the NASA. It sounds too good to be true does not it?

Yet alarmingly he might not be the only African out there in the West doing amazing work for a global company. There are probably Thousands other Africans boasting impressive academic track record and working for the benefit of successful Western Companies. It would seem the majority of those Africans are actually happy to do that and why would they not be? The quality of life, the incentives not to mention the career opportunities are more alluring than anywhere else in the West. Few like Patrick Awuah[1] do decide to come back and do good work for Africa. And I believe Africa needs its brains at least for the three following reasons:

èThe continent is changing ( not just economically, but socio-politically and demographically)

è Young Africans need role models

è African great minds can change our education system

The continent is evolving

You can hardly spend a week browsing the Internet without stumbling on a new story about Africa’s great economic advances and its potentials to be a major economic powerhouse. The truth is that; it is true. Only this morning again I stumbled on this piece about Africa’s latest promising and positive figures, and I bet you can find all kinds of stories on the same subject. Most interestingly is that even great publications like the Economist, Wall Street Journal and the Guardian just to mention these, seem to come to terms with the fact that things are changing in Africa and for the better. I will not spend my time here discussing about the main drivers, but what is certain is Africa is not what it used to be a decade ago. And I think it is great time Africans seize this moment to achieve economic growth and prosperity for its citizenries. And I do feel our Academic Elite in the West can and should play a great part in that. We need our own economists, strategists and policy experts to come back and lay the ground rules for our success story. Socio-politically our civil societies have greater access to the Internet and can tell the world what is happening here which means our leaders are under watch and although there is still widespread corruption, the likelihood of this lasting is weak. Demographically Africa will have more than 1 billion workers by 2030 more than China and India so there is great room for productivity improvement across the continent with so many workers.

Young Africans need inspiration

Few Africans like Patrick Awuah actually decide to abandon lucrative careers in lieu of coming back home to change the continent. But we need more of those at least to inspire young Africans. Africa does have its share of heroes, Nelson Mandela, the late Wangari Mathaii, Samuel Eto’o and Didier Drogba to name just a few. But We need more diversity especially in the kind of heroes we need. We need those leaders that will make Africans think about starting businesses that will inspire them to achieve high in academia and to be more entrepreneurial and more creative.

Africans can change their education system

The Financial Times’ list of top business schools does not include any school from Africa. However we do have the minds to create top business schools and provide Africans with top-notch education. Why do Africans have to fly out of the continent to achieve their dreams of gaining an MBA when our African PHDs can create those chances for our African youth?

What Can African Governments do?

African Governments can and should play a great role in encouraging our stars to come back and do good work at here. For one through their policies they create the economic climate likely to lure their citizens back home. Given the right approach we could witness a mass exodus back to the continent. Firstly scouting talents that are being on the lookout for those Africans making things happen elsewhere can be a good start. How many Governments have put in place strategies to spot and scout their talents out of home? What happens when stories emerge about those Africans changing the world elsewhere? Do their Governments take notice? Do they get in touch with them?

Secondly and most importantly the African Elite will choose to come back only if they have a good reason. At least if they can have the same opportunities back home. And Governments can just create those opportunities and commit to work with the African Elite in bringing about economic growth in addition to providing the right incentives for Africans to come back, settle and work here.

The combination of these mean Africa will benefits from its elite and increase its chances of being the next economic powerhouse of this millennium.

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[1] In this Ted Talk Patrick Awuah why he made the choice to get back to Africa in spite of a lucrative career in Microsoft