Ghana has a wealth of knowledge and talent, but too much of that talent has travelled away from Ghana. German President Dr. Horst Kohler has been visiting Ghana, and among the things he discussed was the brain drain, of educated professionals out of Ghana. Dr. Kohler said essentially the same thing as Dr. Ali Mazrui in a lecture about the brain drain from all of Africa:

. . . as much as there existed ‘pull-in’ factors that attracted the continent’s professionals to, especially, the western world there was the need to look at the ‘push-out’ factors and address them.

Ghana’s successes are beginning to attract back some of her professionals. At least there are a number of people I know who are talking about returning to Ghana, and a number have already gone home. But in Ghana there is one big “push-out” factor that I see. Not only are salaries too low in terms of cost of living, workers are not paid on time, or regularly, or sometimes even at all, and this includes government workers, especially outside the capitol. There are many highly skilled and dedicated people in Ghana. But if they cannot earn a living, even when they have a job, leaving Ghana becomes more tempting. If the government just paid its workers regularly and on time, it could keep many more dedicated professionals who love Ghana. The same is true for businesses and individual employers.

As The Chronicle says:

The Ghanaian worker, has, since Independence been called upon to sacrifice for brighter days, which never seem to come and going by the figures on what is paid expatriates, The Chronicle believes we can do better for our professionals to minimize the ‘push-out’ factors.