The Development Bank of Southern Africa’s financial position and performance for the year 2006/7 achieved or exceeded all of its targets for the year, the bank announced this week during the release of its annual report in Pretoria.
The bank’s total assets have grown to R28 billion during the year from R26.4 billion in 2005/06. The balance sheet growth of 6.1% from the previous financial year points to a sound financial position.

The development loan portfolio saw a growth of 16.7% year-on-year, indicating the continued acceleration of development financing activities by the Bank. The funding for development loan disbursements came mainly from cash and cash equivalents (R564 million), matured financial markets assets (R1.3 billion), financial markets liabilities (R247 million) and the balance from internally generated cash flows.
The net surplus of R1.283 million (up from R928 million the previous year) further strengthens the Bank’s ability to maximize development impact within the context of financial sustainability. The Bank also achieved a 4.6% return on assets and 8.8% return on equity, which are the highest levels in four years. These were mainly due to the strong financial performance posted during the year under review.
Executive Manager and Acting Chief Financial Officer Leonie van Lelyveld said the Bank managed to grow its retained earnings and balance sheet again, on the strength of continued high levels of disbursements on development loans. This demonstrates the Bank’s robustness in meeting its development mandate. The growth trend in retained earnings and the balance sheet is likely to be sustained given the strong development loan pipeline that has been built in the past two years.
Notably, all this has been achieved while remaining well within the cost to income levels set for the year under review. The operating cost to income ratio remained fairly stable at 34.3% compared to 33.7 last year.
DBSA’s Managing Director Paul Baloyi said: “The Bank has maintained its financial sustainability and shown healthy growth in the balance sheet, operating income and surplus.”