South African development bank boosts profit by 47% — Daily Maverick
In South Africa, the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA) recorded a record profit of 7.8 billion rand, 47% higher than the previous figure. At the same time, the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) ended the period with a group net loss of 4.7 billion rand, whereas a year earlier it had posted a profit of 329 million rand, Daily Maverick reports.
Different financial results
IDC reported a profit of 2.3 billion rand, but its group’s consolidated result was loss-making. A significant factor was Mozal Aluminium, which was placed into care and maintenance in March 2026. IDC’s 25% stake in this company accounted for a loss of 2.6 billion rand.
Demand for IDC financing has shifted from large industrial expansion projects to investments intended to increase business resilience. These include local power generation, production-process automation and cost-reduction technologies. Weak domestic demand and negative trends in fixed-capital investment were cited as reasons for this shift.
Joint infrastructure investments
IDC and DBSA have entered into a formal strategic partnership to jointly finance energy security and decarbonisation in special economic zones. Both institutions also support the expansion of the national power grid. IDC said it intends to join a credit guarantee mechanism for independent electricity transmission projects, which is to supplement guarantee mechanisms of the National Treasury and the Ministry of Electricity for the construction of more than 4,000 km of new lines.
More current news is available on the UA.News Telegram channel Telegram.
DBSA’s Infrastructure Fund and IDC are joint key participants in Infrastructure South Africa programmes for strategic integrated projects. The value of this project portfolio has increased by 59% since 2020, reaching 540 billion rand.
Government plans and municipal problems
Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana stated that South Africa has achieved a primary budget surplus and that the public debt-to-GDP ratio is stabilising and declining. According to him, the next task will be to ensure economic growth rates above 3%.
DBSA is separately working to attract private capital to rail and port networks, as well as to bundle commercially viable municipal water supply projects. IDC, meanwhile, is developing a critical minerals initiative to launch projects for extracting battery metals and rare earth elements.
