"Education has no end. As far as your brain can work alright, your eyes can see alright, and your ears can hear alright, if you go to school you can learn," he told CNN.

Yiadom calls on his classmates to resist the lure of higher salaries overseas and stay in Ghana. Most say they have no plans to leave. Bright Korang, a fourth-year student at Presbyterian University College, told CNN, "Throughout my education, taxpayers' money has been used to support me.

"Therefore after school I should also help the taxpayer. I can see there are so many opportunities here in Ghana."
But some of his classmates are looking outside the country. Joshua Odame will study for his master's degree in the UK. "The developed countries have the technical know how, so we go and learn and bring it back to the country."

According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM) more than a million Ghanaians migrated from 2000 to 2007, but more than 85 percent return temporarily or permanently.

The "brain drain" has affected many sectors, including financial services, at all levels.
Benjamin Debrah is managing director of Barclays Bank, Ghana. He returned to his home country after working abroad. But moving back to Ghana meant making sacrifices.
"You take a huge pay cut, because wages are lower here," he told CNN.

"You also sacrifice on the levels of certainty. If you are a professional you want to know that if you are right, the outcome will be a particular thing. It's not quite the same in these parts. There is ambiguity."

New graduates share those concerns. Among them is Douglas Darkwah, a senior at the University of Ghana. "We can't stay in the country when [financial] security is not assured," he said. "I want to make money, to help the poor. [In Ghana] There's no work. There's massive unemployment, so after education there's nothing to do."

Proud of his hard work and survival through hardship, Boakye Yiadom think graduates should stay in the country.

"If it is a scant pay you have to accept it, because it is the government's money that has been used to educate you," he said. "So if you have finished school and passed your degree, you have to stay in Ghana and serve Ghana."