Where did Africa’s Value Go?

When it comes to values and the abuse of values in Africa, there are numerous directions we can explore and make changes in. One of the major aspects of Africa that is bleeding heavily due to consistent neglect and misplaced priorities is our educational system.

From using curricula that don’t represent the needs of Africa, simply because they originated from the very minds that enslaved and colonized Africa, to the brain drain that is happening massively all across Africa, Africa seems to be living below its capacity, and it’s time we do something revolutionary about it.

There is hope, however, as more African heads of state are beginning to see the need to change the trend and also fix the underlying issues that created the bleed in the first place. Ensuring these solutions are created and implemented with the progress and values of Africans in mind will go a long way towards creating a more valuable and sustainable educational system for our people.

Very recently, the government of Gabon announced the intention to cut scholarships to the West. And this is particularly important when you realize that while African universities are struggling with underfunding, the continent pours $20–30 billion each year into sending its youth abroad for education. It doesn’t need Harvard research to know that such funds could transform local institutions. Yet much of this investment is wasted: many graduates never return home, draining Africa of skills. Leadership and real growth.

Gabon’s President announced that, starting in 2026, the country will stop issuing scholarships for studies in the United States, Canada, and France. His reasoning was blunt:

“No scholarships for this year. It’s too expensive. And those who leave don’t come back. They earn their degrees and stay abroad where the pay is better. Why should we fund education for people who won’t contribute to Gabon?”

This isn’t just about Gabon. Nigeria spent $11.6 billion on foreign education between 2019 and 2021 alone. Add South Africa, Kenya, and Ghana, and the total easily reaches $20–30 billion per year. 30 billion Dollars bleeding out of a continent that is called poor, and for education only, makes no rational sense.

Even in the health sector, Africa is facing the same challenge of billions of dollars being exported outside of Africa for medical tourism.

Outbound Medical Tourism from Africa

Overall Annual Spend

Africa is estimated to spend approximately $6 billion per year on medical treatments abroad (i.e., patients traveling outside the continent). A World Bank–cited estimate from earlier (2015–17) put the figure closer to $1 billion+ per year, focused on patient outflows, specifically.

Country-Level Examples

o          Nigeria: Analysts report that Nigerians spend between $500 million to $2 billion annually on medical tourism overseas.

A specific figure mentioned by the Nigerian Medical Association: N120 billion (~USD 300 million–$500 million, depending on exchange rate) each. Other sources indicate Nigeria alone accounts for about $2 billion of the continent-wide total.

o          Kenya: About 100,000 patients leave annually, with an estimated $80 million in overseas medical expenditure going to destinations like India, the UK, Thailand, and the US.

Additional Context

•           Most of this travel is driven by the limited availability of complex healthcare services—like oncology, cardiology, renal, and elective surgeries—within many African countries.

•           Average cost per trip can reach $20,000–40,000, particularly for patients traveling to India or Western nations.

•           The capital flight here highlights barriers in local healthcare infrastructure, as well as the growing middle class’s ability to afford costly treatment abroad.

While no government can stop its citizens from going overseas for studies or medical care, it can at least make real provision for these needs at home, maintain them appropriately, and make sure they truly serve the needs of their people in the best possible ways. Or we can have a continental dialogue on why there has been an increase in these medical cases in the last few decades? Nothing happens by chance, and to truly solve any of the issues highlighted in this article, we must be bold enough to stop, sit, and ask questions about why things are happening the way they are. We may just find out that foreign medical tourism might not be the solution to our medical challenges, but instead, come to understand the cause or causes of these health challenges, and then deal with them appropriately. We should be tired by now of allowing the global pharmaceutical fraternity and the global food corporations to play chess with the health and life of our people.

We cannot keep outsourcing Africa’s brainpower when we can build world-class universities, invest in EdTech, build healthcare facilities run by Africans, or create serious research partnerships. Why should our African countries prefer to send talent overseas, and then complain that things are not working in Africa?

Why should we not create a system that offers better payment for our African talents, instead of blaming the people who don’t return to the continent due to low pay?

Things will not work if we keep following the self-sabotaging, colonialist trends that we have embraced to run our societies. Imagine if a fraction of the 30 billion dollars of foreign education or a fraction of the 6 billion dollars for foreign medical tourism stayed on the continent. Africa wouldn’t just be able to educate its youth; it would keep them well-engaged, productive, and most importantly, valuable.

However, since the fish rots from the head, will African leaders do the needful, or will they keep the trend going since their children are educated outside of the continent and their families love the streets of Paris and Dubai than the streets of their own countries?

In conclusion We must not forget that some of the world’s oldest universities and even libraries are in Africa. So, long before Europe knew what books looked like, Africa already had universities, and long before the medical profession became a European thing, Ugandans were already carrying out Cesarean sections. So, we do not lack a history of greatness or creativity; we just seem to have lost what it means to be African and the values that are the core of it.