The DBSA has undergone much change over the past decade. We have moved from being a project financier to focusing on capacity building because there has been a great need for that kind of support. Our shift towards working with the poorest and most vulnerable is also gaining momentum and we are becoming far more attuned to the needs of these marginalised communities.

Although the major proportion of our resources has been deployed in South Africa, our multi-country investments are now the second highest, underscoring our commitment to regional integration.

We recognise that in living up to our mandate of providing infrastructure and delivering basic services, we need to constantly assess the way we do business. Learning from past experience and our customers is equally important if DBSA is to remain relevant.

As such, we are placing greater emphasis on knowledge sharing and lessons learnt in our quest to be at the forefront of development matters.

We also know that we need to undergo a further paradigm shift to address the innovation required of us. Over the past decade we have consolidated ourselves as a leading development finance institution. Now it is time we started to be bold and creative in finding solutions to this country’s and region’s development challenges.

For the DBSA it’s not only about physical infrastructure but about how to drive the spatial planning arrangements of the new South Africa and towards erasing the distortions of apartheid planning. That’s why we are looking more intently at how we can contribute meaningfully to a framework that ensures proper social infrastructure. 

The DBSA is ready, willing and able to help address the challenges of development.
Our intention is to create a new paradigm for development finance in this region and on the continent, and fashion the Bank as a centre of excellence.

Ultimately, we are focused on making the DBSA into a DFI that works with communities and NGOs in a way that helps to empower them. And, we understand that this can only be done if we work more closely with those we serve, to understand the finer details of what works and what does not, and to ensure that we are always in sync.