Nurses and other professionals are leaving Africa amid worker shortages in their home countries. This is understandable, given they can earn far more abroad and send remittances home. But what is unforgivable is that African governments are not only failing to turn the tide by creating incentives to stay but, in some cases, actively encouraging workers to grab opportunities outside of Africa. Policies need to be rethought fast as the situation is extremely detrimental to Africans generally. We look at three cases: Ghana, Malawi and Kenya.