The African Development Bank’s (AfDB) Dr João L. Ngimbi, Executive Director of Southern Africa Group
II Constituency, visited the Development Bank of Namibia (DBN) as part of his consultation mission to
Namibia. The objective of the mission is to, amongst others, provide and update on recent developments at the AfDB and to engage with member countries on the formulation of the AfDB’s ten-year strategy. During the meeting, which took place on 20 March 2024, DBN reflected on its 20-year journey. DBN CEO, Dr John Steytler, shared that DBN’s strategy for the next five years has been submitted to the Minister of Finance and Public Enterprises for approval. The strategy is aligned to Vision 2023 and the Harambee Prosperity Plan II, and aims to position DBN as the financial partner of choice for innovative development solutions in Namibia. Leveraging development partnerships with other development finance institutions such as the AfDB, are a critical enabler of DBNs strategy.
In 2016, DBN and AfDB signed a loan agreement for a 17-year line of credit for N$4.5 billion, making the
AfDB DBNs biggest funder. The proceeds of the line of credit were used for on-lending to projects in the
infrastructure, manufacturing, logistics and tourism sectors. These funds have been instrumental for DBN in pioneering renewable energy finance in Namibia. In addition, DBN funded 16 land delivery and housing projects to alleviate the lack of housing in the country.
Besides providing much needed loans to viable projects, the credit line strengthened DBN’s in-house capacity for environmental monitoring of projects in line with international best practices. The engagement between the two development finance institutions also aligned DBN to best governance practice, which helped unlock funding from other development partners such as the KfW from Germany. Loans funded with the line of credit created an estimated 1,800 jobs, of which over 800 jobs were created in the land servicing and housing sector. DBN and AfDB agreed to continue building on their partnership to drive Namibia’s sustainable socio-economic development.
-DBN