Prof. Kevin Urama, Chief Economist and Vice President, Economic Governance and Knowledge Management, African Development Bank(AfDB) Group, says Nigeria ranks fourth among African countries with large numbers of diasporans outside the continent.
Urama disclosed this in Abuja while speaking on“ Diaspora Funding for Africa’s Development” at the Global African Diaspora Symposium on Building Stronger Connections between Africa and the Global Diaspora on Thursday.
“Nigeria is one of the countries with large numbers of Diasporans. The Nigerian Diaspora living outside Africa has tripled between 2000 and 2020.
“While Nigeria ranks fourth among African countries with large numbers of Diasporans outside the continent, the extra-continental Nigerian diaspora has tripled in two decades.
“From 320,000 people in 2000 to about one million in 2020. About 58 per cent of Nigeria’s diasporans live outside Africa, while 42 per cent live in Africa,’’ he said.
Urama said the African Union (AU) estimated that 70,000 skilled professionals emigrate from the continent annually, noting that in 2015, African-trained medical graduates practising in the US reached 13,584.
He said:“The Mo Ibrahim Foundation assessment `Brain Drain: A bane for Africa’s potential’ found that in 2015, 86 per cent of all African-educated physicians working in the US were trained in Egypt, Ghana, Nigeria and South Africa.
“A significantly large number of Africans in the Diaspora are excelling in medicine, robotics, space engineering, nanotechnology, architecture, engineering, public policy, academia IT and literature.
“Other fields where they excel include the media, sports, entertainment, the public domain of politics and the private sector in different parts of the world.’’
