DBSA Contact Details

The Development Bank of Southern Africa is a development finance institution, not a retail bank. It does not open accounts, issue cards or lend to individuals. Almost every call it receives from a member of the public is in the wrong place, and knowing that first saves you the queue.

Official contact details

• Switchboard: +27 11 313 3911
• Reception: +27 11 313 3500 or +27 11 313 3297
• Email: info@dbsa.org
• Physical address: 1258 Lever Road, Headway Hill, Midrand
• Postal address: PO Box 1234, Halfway House, 1685

Dialled locally those are 011 313 3911, 011 313 3500 and 011 313 3297.

Use the enquiry form and pick the right area

The DBSA contact form routes by area of interest, and choosing correctly is what determines who reads it. The published options are general enquiry, CSI and CSR, climate financing and the green economy, energy, social housing and bulk student accommodation, transport, water and sanitation, information and communications technology, education, health, local government support, SADC PPDF, mining and critical minerals, and complaints.

That list doubles as a map of what the bank actually funds. If your project does not fit one of those areas, the DBSA is probably not your funder.

What DBSA finances

It funds infrastructure, largely at scale and largely for the public sector and its partners: municipal infrastructure, energy, water and sanitation, transport, health and education facilities, and increasingly climate-related projects through a Climate Finance Facility, an Embedded Generation Investment Programme, the Green Fund and Global Environment Facility work. It also runs project preparation and programme development, which matters because many applicants need that support before a project is fundable at all.

• There is an Apply for Funding route on the DBSA site; use it rather than the switchboard
• Have the project defined: what it is, who the implementing entity is, what stage it has reached and what the funding gap is
• A municipality or state entity applying should expect the Local Government Support pathway rather than a straight loan enquiry

Suppliers and tenders

Procurement runs separately from funding. DBSA publishes open requests for quotation and tenders, a list of panels and of awarded and cancelled tenders, and an eProcurement supplier portal. Register on the portal rather than emailing a company profile to the switchboard.

Complaints and reporting fraud

• The contact form carries a Complaints option that routes separately from a general enquiry
• DBSA publishes an anti-fraud and corruption route on its own site
• It also runs an Independent Grievance Redress Mechanism for people affected by projects it finances

That last one is unusual and worth knowing about. If a DBSA-funded project has affected your community, the grievance mechanism exists specifically for that and is independent of the project sponsor. It is a different door from a complaint about the bank service.

As a state-owned institution DBSA is also subject to the Promotion of Access to Information Act, and publishes a PAIA manual, which is the formal route for records it does not publish voluntarily.