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

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

"South Africa needs to produce significantly more skilled [people] as growing numbers begin working across borders," says Sandra Burmeister, the group's CEO.

Since 2003, investment in Africa has exceeded that of emerging countries on other continents and Ernst & Young forecasts that new African fixed direct investment projects will reach R1.1-trillion by 2015, creating 350000 jobs a year.

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

"As the communications infrastructure has improved in countries such as Kenya and Nigeria, international companies are locating their Africa head offices in these countries to be closer to their key markets, frequently drawing on an already limited South African scarce-skills pool for key positions," said Burmeister.

Current African projects under way in water, electricity and transport infrastructure amount to R173-billion.

Burmeister said that the challenge was how to find and retain talent .

"The African economy cannot create sustainable economic development if it has to continually import - and pay a premium for - technical ability from the US, Europe and Asia," she said.

Africa has relied heavily on expatriates for the past 50 years: businesses spend R31-billion a year to recruit and pay 100000 of them.

Another problem Africa faces is the low number of adults with a tertiary education. Across sub-Saharan Africa, only 0.38% of adults have a tertiary education; the South African average is 0.60%.

The university dropout rate across Africa is estimated at 50%, against 60% for South Africa, 46% for the US and 16% for the UK.

"If we can increase the graduation rate, we can increase the supply of skills," she said.

On a positive note, a recent global survey of women in emerging markets revealed that female enrolment at universities and graduate schools had increased dramatically.

Though no data is available across Africa, the number of female graduates has quadrupled in South Africa over the past five years, albeit off a low base.

Women make up 65% of college graduates in the UAE, 60% in Brazil, and 47% in China.

The shortfall of engineers, and of other qualified professionals and technicians, in South Africa is estimated to be 800000.

Burmeister said that South Africa should invest in technology and research because technology underpinned economic growth and created competitive advantage.