The Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA) and infrastructure investment and financing provider China Development Bank (CDB) have signed a $293-million loan facility agreement to support infrastructure, energy, information and communications technology, water, health and manufacturing projects across Africa.

The agreement was signed on the margins of the annual meeting of the BRICS Interbank Cooperation Mechanism, in Brazil, on July 8, and marks the first financing cooperation between the two banks.

Both banks are members of the BRICS Interbank Cooperation Mechanism. This agreement is a practical measure to help upgrade financial, economic and trade cooperation among BRICS countries and promote the all-round strategic partnership between China and South Africa.

It follows on the ‘Ten Major Partnership Actions’ announced by China at the Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation in 2024, and the shared vision of China and Africa to advance modernisation and build an all-weather community with a shared future.

“We sign this line of credit with our partner CDB to advance our ambition. An ambition that carries a profound weight of future responsibility, for we are enabling unwritten chapters of our future through the sustainable infrastructure that we build today,” said DBSA CEO Boitumelo Mosako.

“This agreement marks a new stage in our cooperation,” stated CDB president Tan Jiong.