A Professor of Economics at New York University (NYU) who is also the Director of the Center for Technology and Economic Development, has advised the government to create an enabling environment for skilled workers to practice abroad.

According to Professor Yaw Nyarko, sending human resource to work outside the borders of the country, has a huge economic benefit to Ghana as earnings would be sent back home.

“We need to engage with the world and the best way to engage is for our people to go into the world. There is nothing wrong with our skilled people going to other countries for jobs. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that. Too many times, I hear the word brain drain, we are losing our doctors, and we are losing our nurses. I don’t think that’s right.”

He passed these concern at the Achimota Speaks Forum on Thursday, November 16, 2023.

The Economics Professor explained that allowing doctors to leave on their own volition left room for other skilled workers to fill the vacancies, and thereby reducing unemployment.

“I once saw a report which says let’s make the standards of our doctors a little bit lower so that they can’t get the brain drain. On the contrary, I believe and our economic analysis has shown, if you allow people to leave, many people think there is a chance, they could leave and get large amounts of money outside, and many more people get into that field in the first place. So that after those who want to leave have actually left- those you have left behind in Ghana is a larger number than if you did not allow people to leave.” he advised.

Professor Nyarko said the government would be making a mistake if it does not allow the youth to go out and work so that profits could be sent back home.

He added that Ghana was still developing, therefore engaging with the rest of the world was the best thing to do to speed up growth in all sectors. He reiterated that “We cannot do this by ourselves, we should not do things by ourselves and one of the easiest ways to do that is to let people leave. Let's encourage it. You would not be seeing me here if people said Professor you can’t leave. In fact, in my years we actually had to have an exit visa to leave Ghana.”

Meanwhile, Professor Nyarko said, this would only work if it is managed well.

“As an economist, we have something we call the Youth Dividend, so a large number of our people are below the age of 19 or 20. This is something that needs to be managed well. This is something that needs to be managed well, this is something that we need to be very careful about,” he counselled.