ADDIS ABABA, 3 March 2004 — African governments spend an estimated $4.7 billion of donor funds every year to hire foreign experts, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said here yesterday.
“Africa is paying foreign experts around $4.7 billion ,” Charles Kwenin, the head of IOM’s Ethiopian office said, during the launch of a website (www.ethiopiansindiaspora.com) aimed at encouraging Ethiopians living abroad to invest in their motherland.
Kwenin said the use of huge amounts of money to hire expatriates “creates a widening vicious circle, as poverty encourages brain-drain and brain-drain increases poverty.”
He said an estimated 3.6 million Africans live in Europe and North America, about 100,000 of them are highly qualified professionals.
