November 20, 2005

The new Administrator of the UNDP, Kemal Dervis, has urged Nigeria to improve public sector wages as a way of stemming brain drain in the country, especially in the health sector.

Dervis, who arrived in Nigeria on Sunday on a three-day visit, gave the advice in an interview with a local newspaper, published on Monday.

\"I think that two things are involved. The livelihood and the salaries that are available in Nigeria have to go up,\" he said, adding that the country\'s education system must also be planned \"to ensure that it responds to the needs of Nigerians, not the needs of London or New York\".

More than 6 000 Nigerian specialist medical professionals are in the US alone, as the Nigerian health facilities have deteriorated due to years of neglect and wages remain poor.

Dervis said the Nigerian government should spend some of its extra earnings from rising crude oil prices on revamping the health sector, but warned that this should be stretched over four or five years to avoid the instability a massive injection of funds can bring into the financial system.

The UNDP boss noted, however, that it was inevitable for professionals to look for greener pastures, adding: \"You are not going to lock the door and say nobody will leave.\"

Dervis\' trip to Nigeria is his first country visit since taking over as UNDP administrator and chair of the UN Development Group in August 2005.

The UNDP said the visit to Nigeria is in recognition of the country\'s strategic importance to poverty reduction and human development in Africa.

Nasir el-Rufai, the Minister for the Federal Capital Territory, is scheduled to present Dervis the key to Abuja, Nigeria\'s capital, on Monday.

Later on Monday, the Administrator will meet with Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, who is the arrowhead of Nigeria\'s reform programme, as well as with other senior government officials, including some state governors and members of the economic reform team.

On Tuesday, Dervis will meet with President Olusegun Obasanjo in his dual capacity as the President of Africa\'s most populous country and the chairman of the African Union (AU).

Prior to his appointment as UNDP Administrator, Dervis was Turkey\'s minister for economic affairs and the treasury from March 2001 to August 2002.

The 56-year-old Dervis was nominated as UNDP Administrator in May 2005 by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, and the UNDP Board and the UN General Assembly unanimously approved his nomination.

He succeeds Mark Malloch Brown, who is now the chief of staff to Annan. - Pana