Bank to boost its SADC portfolio

THE Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA) would increase its new investments in the Southern African Development (SADC) region by 20 per cent a year over the next five years, Pieter de la Rey, the chief financial officer, said last week.

De la Rey said the bank had disbursed N$2 billion of new investments to the SADC region in the current financial year.The bank adopted a demand approach to investment in Africa and focused on regional integration and significant infrastructure development.Reidwaan Wookay, the spokesman at the DBSA, said future investments would be in ‘all and any’ SADC country.’Our mandate rests only in the SADC region. We have not particularly earmarked nor excluded any country in the SADC region for investments as the needs for this are viewed as regional,’ Wookay said.In March the DBSA signed loan agreements of about N$700 million with Tsepong, a consortium led by Netcare, to construct, upgrade, and operate a new public referral hospital and refurbish the existing Filter Clinics on behalf of the Lesotho government.In January it approved a loan of US$10m (N$100m at the time) to refurbish the Grand Karavia Hotel in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).Last November chief executive Paul Baloyi signed a US$25m loan with Maweni Limestone, a subsidiary of Nairobi-listed Athi River Mining, to establish a clinker and cement grinding plant in Tanga, Tanzania.The DBSA’s planned investments in the rest of the continent coincide with a statement by fellow state-owned development finance institution the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) that it would lift its disbursements to Africa to N$15 billion in the next five years.The IDC has invested N$2,9 billion in the rest of Africa in the past year.A Johannesburg-based analyst, who preferred to remain anonymous, said he hoped the surge in external investments by the IDC and DBSA would not leave South Africa neglected.’And I also think this would not come as a drain to the South African taxpayer in the years to come,’ he said.’I think the role we played in foreign affairs has actually influenced this need for an increase in African investments. Some countries must have asked for assistance as we continued to play peacemaker in the DRC and other countries.’Zimbabwe was seeking an US$80 million facility with the DBSA, Reuters reported last Monday.De la Rey said the bank had realised that Zimbabwe was experiencing difficult times.’For the region to grow and be successful, Zimbabwe has to grow with its fellow states.’For this reason, the DBSA is evaluating ways to assist the growth of Zimbabwe,’ he said.De la Rey said DBSA’s non South African portfolio stood at N$9 billion in March.Major sectors of investment included energy, mining, communications and economic development, and now increasingly agriculture.-Business Report