State-owned financial institution pays its average employee R1.7 million a year 

The average employee at the Industrial and Development Corporation (IDC) received a total remuneration package of R1.7 million in the 2025 financial year. 

Revealed in the entity’s 2025 integrated annual report, this figure includes salaries, bonuses, and any other benefits paid to employees. 

This figure puts the average IDC employee on par with their peers at the Public Investment Corporation (PIC) and the Reserve Bank. 

The average PIC employee also receives a R1.7 million pay package, while those at the Reserve Bank earn slightly less at R1.4 million per annum. 

These institutions tend to have highly paid employees, given the nature of their work and intense private sector competition for finance professionals. 

In the case of the IDC, the institution is South Africa’s largest development finance institution and sits on R144.3 billion in assets. 

The IDC currently has 636 individual business clients, which it has either invested in or loaned money to, funding their growth. In 2025, R16.3 billion was disbursed by the IDC to businesses. 

With regard to the salary paid to its employees, the average figure at the IDC is influenced heavily by how efficient it is as an organisation. 

The IDC manages its assets, disbursements, and mandate to drive industrialisation with only 856 permanent staff members. 

This enables the institution to pay relatively well, with its profit per employee being relatively high in comparison to other state-run entities. 

Importantly, it also has to compete with private sector players for skills and talent, which generally pushes salaries up in the financial sector. 

Private companies, ranging from asset managers to banks, have flagged the ongoing war for talent in the sector as a major risk to their businesses. 

To secure the requisite skills to drive their growth, these companies have turned to higher salaries to retain talent or acquire it. 

Playing in this space means the IDC has to compete alongside these private sector players, pushing the salary of its average employee higher. 

86 years of the IDC 

The IDC was founded in 1940 by the government out of wartime necessity, with South Africa desperately needing to industrialise its economy. 

Led by H.J. van Eck, the IDC was tasked with making South Africa as self-sufficient as possible, as many of its trade routes were disrupted by WWII. 

While being tasked with industrialisation, the IDC’s mandate covered all aspects of a war economy, including food supply. 

To this end, the institution’s first loan was to a tiny business run by Mrs Greyvenstein. This business would become Ouma Rusks. 

Little could be done to fundamentally overhaul South Africa’s economy in the space of five years, but the government was certain that the country should become self-reliant. 

The IDC became a vital part of the apartheid-era economy, investing heavily to build an industrialised South Africa. 

Its efforts ramped up as threats of international sanctions and isolation mounted against the government. 

During this period, the IDC was effectively an incubator for large parastatals or private companies in strategic industries. 

Many of the businesses it funded during this period remain at the centre of South Africa’s economy today. 

Its most notable funding venture was that of Sasol in the 1950s and 1960s, with the IDC’s financing proving critical in the creation of oil refineries. 

Importantly, this led to the commercial development of coal-to-oil facilities in South Africa, enabling the country to produce its own fuel. 

These facilities remain the only commercial examples of the technology in the world. 

The IDC also funded the creation of Foskor in 1951 to supply the country with phosphate and fertilisers for agriculture. 

This company met South Africa’s demand entirely, making its agriculture sector completely self-sufficient in the second half of the 20th century. 

With 1994 came a significant shift in the IDC’s mandate, with it transitioning away from funding state-run monopolies in key sectors. 

It was mandated to drive the creation of an inclusive, globally competitive economy. In most cases, this meant driving the transformation of the South African economy. 

The IDC became a key vehicle for funding Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) deals in the 1990s and 2000s. 

A notable success from this period was the creation of Exxaro, which is one of the largest mining companies listed on the JSE and one of the first black-founded businesses. 

Post-1994, the IDC was also enabled to invest outside of South Africa to drive regional development. A flagship project here was the creation of the Mozal Aluminium Smelter in Mozambique. 

More recently, the IDC has increasingly acted as a buffer during times of crises, helping businesses to avoid liquidation and recover from the pandemic.