IDC saved fewer than 1 in 5 targeted jobs as both development banks missed badly in 2024/25

Both of South Africa's flagship development finance institutions — DBSA and IDC — simultaneously fell well short of their job-related targets in FY2024/25, and DBSA's jobs-facilitated total dropped nearly 43% year-on-year, from 35 154 to 19 963. But the IDC's shortfall was even more acute: it saved just 1 741 jobs against a target of 9 362, and its intra-regional export generation of R4.80 billion reached barely a third of the R14.62 billion target. The simultaneous failure across both institutions and multiple metrics therefore points to a systemic deterioration in development impact at a time when South Africa's official unemployment rate sits at 32.9%.