When Donald Trump was still calling the shots in the US, I waxed indignant in this column after he had tweeted about how mostly African migrants were overwhelming his country, describing the immigrants’ countries of origin in unprintable terms. As multiple surveys were to prove later, Trump’s utterances were nonsensical, as America takes only the best African brains, with a sizable number of the new arrivals actually creating employment for locals.

The allure that America and other Western climes have for Africans – especially the skilled youngsters with the potential to help develop our countries economically and inject much-needed dynamism into our politics – is not diminishing at all. A survey of young people from 15 countries, the results of which were released in mid-June, showed that most of them have lost confidence in the ability of their own countries and the continent as a whole to meet their aspirations.

The African Youth Survey, which entailed interviews with 4 500 respondents aged 18 to 24, found that the Covid-19 pandemic, the climate crisis, political instability and violence have all contributed to making young people “jittery” about their future on their home continent.

Only 32% of the interviewees said they were optimistic about Africa’s prospects, with this figure representing an 11-percentage point slide from the previous survey, the results of which were published in 2020. A major bombshell of this year’s survey was that 52% of the respondents planned to move abroad in the next three years, with the proportion increasing to 75% in Nigeria and Sudan. This contrasts with the previous survey, which revealed that two-thirds intended to stay put.

What’s more, in almost all countries, at least two-thirds of those surveyed said they believed their countries were going in the wrong direction. Rwanda and Ghana, however, were outliers, with 60% and 56% of the respondents telling interviewers that they were convinced that their countries were being steered in the right direction. Sentiment about the direction Africa is taking was divided, although only in Ghana did the majority believe that the continent was on the right track.

It’s not difficult to understand why Covid-19 is a big emigration push factor; owing to the pandemic, many young people have had their education disrupted, while many families have had their livelihoods destroyed. Concerns about instability and politically motivated violence are fuelled by the fact that it’s election year or a year before elections in some of the countries included in the survey.

The African Youth Survey was commissioned by the family foundation of Ivor Ichikowitz, a South African citizen. Well done, Mhlekazi!

The brain drain has been happening for a long time and is a big blow to the continent in several respects. According to African Union estimates, this continent loses about $2-billion a year as a result of its professionals moving to First World countries. The host countries, however, are making a killing. In Canada, for example, African migrants contribute about $384-million to the economy each year, while the US benefits to the tune of $846-million and the UK $2-billion.

Additionally, African countries invest heavily in education and training to compensate for the lost talent and skilled professionals.

Healthcare professionals are among those who tend to emigrate, and the upshot is that Africa faces a dire shortage of such skills. World Health Organisation statistics show that Chad had 0.00 physicians per 1 000 people in 2017, with Burundi having 0.1 per 1 000 people in the same year, while Zambia had 1.2 per 1 000 people in 2018. Zimbabwe had 0.2 physicians per 1 000 people in 2018, Guinea had 0.1 per 1 000 people in 2016, eSwatini had 0.3 per 1 000 people in 2016 and South Africa had 0.9 per 1 000 people in the same year.