Africa Day: Celebrate employee mobility

Financial engineering education occurs near banking hubs like New York, London, and Hong Kong, which can mean relocation for graduate students from Africa. But picking up and moving thousands of miles away was not an option for Temilola Oyewale in 2017.

“Relocating to any of those centres would have come with significant financial and personal tradeoffs that would have created major constraints,” she says.

For starters, Oyewale had just been accepted into a PhD finance programme at Kwara State University near her home in Nigeria. She wanted to pursue a quant degree simultaneously and could not be in two places at once.

Cost was another factor. Even with a full-tuition scholarship, relocation and housing can price many Africans out of the market. If they take a loan, they can find themselves tethered to high-cost global cities for years and perhaps their entire careers.

Tracer studies show that about half of international students from Africa return to the continent after graduation, about seven per cent split their time between Africa and abroad, and the rest stay away as part of the diaspora.

“Heavy student debt can quietly take away choice,” Oyewale says. “When someone graduates owing a large amount in foreign currency, their next steps are often dictated by repayment pressure rather than by where they can add the most value or where they truly want to live and work.”

Put simply, New York debt requires a New York salary. A paycheck in Nigerian naira, South African rand, or Kenyan shillings probably won’t cut it. Africa yielded 4.5 per cent growth in 2025, outpacing the global average, yet students who leave cannot always afford to return.

This is a separate issue from “brain drain”, the one-directional flow of talent away from the Global South. Oyewale is describing employee mobility, the power to control one’s own career. Leaving Africa makes sense for some people but not others. Either way, the choice should be their own.

That flexibility matters, especially for African professionals who may want to move between markets, start something of their own, or return home at different points in their careers.

Oyewale’s solution was the free, online, accredited Master of Science in Financial Engineering program at WorldQuant University, where I work. Oyewale earned the degree without interrupting her doctoral studies, which she completed in 2023 without ever leaving Nigeria.

Her story marks a power shift as Africa Day 2026 approaches.

For decades, the path into many careers has been geographically narrow. People pursuing certain occupations have had to uproot their lives and move abroad.

Many individuals have overcome these barriers, often at Africa’s expense. The continent exports human capital while importing financial models, risk frameworks, and market assumptions developed elsewhere.

This geographic imbalance is no longer necessary. As technology advances, low-cost, high-quality education is increasingly feasible at scale.

More than half of WorldQuant University learners live and work in Africa—across 52 countries. Despite real-world challenges, 82 per cent of these learners who complete at least two courses go on to graduate.

Other examples abound. Georgia Tech University in the United States offers high-quality, low-cost online master’s degrees through its Professional Education division. University of the People and Nexford University are even more affordable.

African institutions are also scaling access. Universities in Nigeria, South Africa, Kenya, Rwanda, and elsewhere have integrated remote coursework, hybrid instruction, and global research collaboration into postgraduate finance and quantitative programmes.

These developments signal a structural shift. Proximity to a banking hub is no longer a prerequisite for mastering the mathematics of derivatives, the coding of trading systems, or the theory of risk. The result is a new era of empowerment for people previously left behind.

“Graduating without debt gives people room to think long term,” Oyewale says. “It allows them to take career risks, build experience, or contribute locally without being forced into the highest-paying option immediately.”

Employee mobility like this is something to celebrate on May 25.

• Dr Gbemi Disu, a Senior Vice President for Global Partner Development at WorldQuant University, writes from Miami, Florida, United States