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Encouraging more Nigerian youths in tech, best way to tackle brain drain – Tech guru, Wale Kuku

By Guardian Nigeria
20 February 2023   |   1:31 am
Nigeria currently has only 24,000 licensed medical doctors available in the country, less than 10 percent of the number needed to meet a WHO recommendation. Nigeria is also experiencing this 'brain drain' across several other sectors including technology, teaching, engineering and manufacturing. Sharing his thoughts and possible solutions to the issue, Tech Entrepreneur, Wale Kuku…

Nigeria currently has only 24,000 licensed medical doctors available in the country, less than 10 percent of the number needed to meet a WHO recommendation. Nigeria is also experiencing this ‘brain drain’ across several other sectors including technology, teaching, engineering and manufacturing.

Sharing his thoughts and possible solutions to the issue, Tech Entrepreneur, Wale Kuku says, ‘like I’ve said when people talk about ‘brain drain’ being the problem, it is not, ‘brain drain’ is an advantage right now because It’s about developing brain capital, building, nurturing and supplying talents in technology and it means we’re exporting brain capital’.

He went on to explain that, ‘the issue we have is the supply of the brain and technical know-how that’s the problem. We are not training our people enough, it’s about getting good schools, universities, training centres and we’re not getting enough of that. We have millions of jobless youths out there doing nothing that we can empower, train and build for the future.

Speaking on what his company F1 Interactive is doing to help cushion the effect of brain drain, Wale Kuku said, ‘already, we’ve set up computer clubs in universities just to encourage and convince more people to come into technology, we’re also training more Nigerian undergraduates in secondary schools to embrace technology as one of the key lifelines in the future’.

‘Brain capital export can become the highest revenue and foreign exchange earner for Nigeria with a potential of wellover $60B within the next 4 years if Properly harnessed. While Technology would be one of the leading industries in brain capital export, medical, BPO like accounting and business services would also be top revenue earners. Brain capital development and export is a powerful tool to drastically reduce unemployment and catalyze the NIgerian economy’ he added.

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