Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the Director-General of the World Trade Organization (WTO), asserted that young people will continue to move overseas because it is difficult for them to realize their dreams at home.
This was said on Monday in Abuja during the 2023 induction ceremony for newly elected and re-elected governors, according to Newsmen.
Okonjo-Iweala emphasized that young people won’t be eager to move overseas if they are successful in Nigeria, and that if they keep leaving, Nigeria will struggle to develop and prosper.
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Therefore, the minister urged the governors to prioritize nation-building and make investments in their states’ infrastructure and educational systems.
She said: “With our large numbers of educated people fluent in English – together with a deep network of connections to the diaspora – we are well positioned to seize these opportunities.
“But such businesses, like our tech startups, will struggle to thrive if we keep losing so many of our most skilled young people to emigration. Let me share some numbers.
“Over 15,000 Nigerians emigrated to Canada in 2021, joining 19,000 who had moved there in the previous two years. Estimates for 2022 are 20,000. That is over 50,000 skilled Nigerians in the space of four years.
“In the first half of 2022 alone, the UK granted skilled worker visas to nearly 16,000 Nigerians. Thousands of Nigerian-trained medical doctors work in the USA. The most popular phrase in Nigeria now is “I am going to japa”. I am not telling people not to go, but what I am saying is how many of these japas can we afford? If you japa we want you to “kapa”.
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“Excellencies you must make your states and all of Nigeria a hospitable, encouraging place where young people want to stay and thrive, not leave. Much as we appreciate remittances sent home by these migrants, Nigeria will not develop and prosper if its youthful, tech-savvy population leaves. Without them, our demographic dividend disappears.”
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