Ghana suffers brain drain.

Roughly 50 per cent of highly educated Ghanaians have migrated to developed countries according to a United Nations report released at a special meeting on international migration at UN headquarters in New York on 14 and 15 September. Nor is Ghana alone in experiencing the consequences of the so-called brain-drain. Between 33 and 55 per cent of the highly-educated people of Angola, Burundi, Kenya, Mauritius, Mozambique, Sierra Leone, Uganda and the United Republic of Tanzania live in Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries, says the report. For Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago the proportion is even higher about 60 per cent.

The departure of skilled workers from these countries has a negative impact particularly on the public sector. Speaking at a recent seminar on Women and International Migration in the Health Sector, Felix Nyante of the Nurses and Midwives Council of Ghana said the country loses not only these professionals, but also investment in their education and fiscal income , and called on the government to do everything possible to create incentives for them to remain.