Former statistician general John Steytler has been appointed the new chief executive officer of the Development Bank of Namibia (DBN) with effect from 1 September, 2023.
This was confirmed yesterday by DBN’s board, which said Steytler, will be in charge for five years. He takes over from Martin Inkumbi who will be leaving the bank in August after 10 years at the helm.
Steytler, an economist, emerged successful after a protracted independent recruitment process. He is currently the GIZ Namibia Project Leader of the Sustainable Development Goals Initiative. Prior to that, he was the Economic Advisor to the President.
Steytler also established Namibia’s National Statistics Office and served as the Statistician General at the Namibia Statistics Agency (NSA) for four years. He holds a wealth of domestic and international experience in the public and private sectors with special focus on macroeconomics and international economics.
As head of research and chief economist at the Bank of Namibia, Steytler pioneered the formalisation of Namibia’s Monetary Policy Framework and oversaw a number of important research papers with significant impact on the Namibian financial system, such as optimal utilisation of Namibia’s large contractual savings pool for local economic development and the development of the Namibia Financial Sector Charter.
He thus has a deep understanding of the socio-economic development trajectory of Namibia, including the associated challenges and opportunities.
DBN board chairperson, Sarel Van Zyl, expressed confidence and support for the incoming CEO and wished him well as he comes to champion the strategic direction of the bank with the help of seasoned executives.
“I expect Dr Steytler and his executive team to play a significant role in the recovery and future development of the Namibian economy and its people,” said Van Zyl.