Brain Drain Taking a Toll on Africa’s Largest Economy

Insufficient manpower contributing to Nigeria's poor state of health care

A health official works in the laboratory extraction room of the Institute of Lassa Fever Research and Control in Irrua, Nigeria, on March 6, 2018. Pius Utomi Ekpei/AFP/Getty Images

LAGOS, Nigeria—Gaining admission to study public health at Harvard University last year was a career breakthrough for Luke Adeola (not his real name), a Nigerian medical doctor.

Adeola’s plan was to get his master’s and return to Nigeria to continue his budding career. A few months after graduating from Harvard, the 34-year-old has not returned home.