SOUTH Africa stands to lose scarce skilled resources to other African countries as massive foreign direct investment projects get under way on the African continent, according to Landelahni Recruitment Group.

This is because many countries are more attractive than SA in terms of their regulatory environment.

"South Africa needs to produce significantly more skilled resources as growing numbers begin working cross-border," according to Sandra Burmeister, CEO of Landelahni.

Since 2003 investment in Africa has exceeded that of other emerging countries. Ernst & Young forecasts that new African fixed direct investment (FDI) projects will reach $150-billion (about R1.1-trillion) by 2015, creating 350000 new jobs a year.

The financial services group expects Africa's GDP growth to average 5% through to 2015, and notes that countries which offered the most FDI opportunities include SA, Kenya, Nigeria, Ghana and Angola.

Current African projects under way in water, electricity and transport infrastructure amount to $22-billion (about R170-billion).

Africa has relied on expatriates over the past 50 years and organisations spend $4-billion (about R31-billion) annually to recruit and pay 100000 expatriates to work on the continent.

Another challenge Africa faces is the low number of adults with tertiary education qualifications.

Across sub-Saharan Africa, only 0.38% of adults have a tertiary education compared with a South African average of 0.60%. Kenya leads the continent with 2%, against a global average of 3.94% of adults with tertiary education.