Popular billionaire businessman and philanthropist, Bill Gates, has expressed his view on the Japa syndrome, where young Nigerian professionals migrate from Nigeria in search of “greener pastures”.
The Microsoft co-founder talked about the “Japa” phenomenon recently during an interactive session with innovators on ‘Advancing Africa: Unleashing the Power of Youth in Science and Innovation’ which took place in Lagos State.
While talking about the phenomenon, he said: “In a sense, people leaving is a good thing, if you up the amount of training you’re doing.
“Having a big diaspora that includes people coming back into business, into government – that’s a very healthy thing.”
According to Gates, in an instance where the government offers subsidized medical education, “one almost wishes that a little bit of that resource you get overseas would help the government increase the training”.
Otherwise, there is an important shortage in some of those skills, he noted.
He said: “I’m not someone who believes that no one should go away or that blocking that completely is a healthy thing.”
He pointed out the similarities Nigeria shares with India and China in talent exportation and remarked that “many” innovative immigrant doctors had spent some time in the UK and the US as part of their training.
He said: “This idea that people go away and do great work but then they come back, if you get that in balance and figure out the education funding piece of that, that is a super healthy thing in computer science, in health, in a business, and other areas.
“You say, ‘Some of our doctors can go get a very high salary in the UK or the US.’ Some of them will pay to their family broadly and some of them will return.”
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