Chronicled herein is a comprehensive account of how the NEF has sought, in the foregoing year, to intensify the Empowerment Dividend, the performance framework according to which the NEF evaluates the impact of its work, and comprises the following seven criteria:

• Broad Based Black Economic Empowerment - The NEF measures whether the seven elements of the BB-BEE Codes of Good Practice are facilitated through its funding structures. The overall BB- BEE score as calculated in the balanced scorecard is thus used as a principal measure of the contribution that the business under consideration is going to make to the furthering of BB BEE. This score and subsequent progress in meeting its targets is evaluated at the date that funding is approved as well as subsequent to this through the post investment monitoring function of the NEF. Targets in respect of BB BEE are not specifically set at this stage though minimum eligibility criteria are in place against each specific product offering;
  
  
• Participation by Black Women - the NEF emphasises the empowerment of women by placing an additional weighting for black women participation, over and above that allocated in the balanced scorecard. The target for women’s participation is 40% of the BEE ownership level supported in each transaction;
  
  
• Job Creation - Contribution towards employment creation and the number of jobs created per Rand invested or jobs sustained through expansion type activities. Historically, targets in terms of job creation are not specifically set, though the results are monitored by business stage and against industry reported job investment levels. Targets have been set for future years;
  
  
• Investment in Priority Growth Sectors - The number of investments facilitating black ownership and control of existing and new enterprises in the priority sectors of the economy as identified by the New Growth Path (NGP) and the National Industrial Policy Framework (NIPF);
  
  
• Geographic Spread - Geographic spread of investments and contribution towards increased economic activity across all province’s, particularly in areas of regional economic disadvantage. Targets in terms of geographic spread are set so as to attempt to match the respective disadvantaged province’s relative contribution to national GDP;
  
  
• Investment Return - The real return that each fund realises on capital employed, after the impairment ratios experienced for that fund, as a combined measure of debt, equity and quasi equity invested. Investment return targets aim to achieve a real return of the equivalent of the risk free rate of return for iMbewu Fund and Rural and Community Development  Fund, at least an 18% IRR for uMnotho Fund and Strategic Projects Fund, and
  
  
• Transactions Concluded - The number of deals approved together with the capital invested in these deals. Targets in respect of the number and value of deals to be concluded are set each year in advance during the compilation of the organisation’s business plan.

The NEF BB-BEE Vision 2020 seminar took place on the 24th of May 2010 in Johannesburg, where over 600 delegates came to reflect on the progress that had been made up to that point by BB-BEE in South Africa, and equally important, to define a vision for BB-BEE for 2020.

The seminar participants engaged in detailed discussions on the performance of BB-BEE in eleven industry sectors, guided by the following framework:

1. Current status of transformation within the key sectors of the South African economy;
   
   
2. Challenges in transforming these sectors;
   
   
3. Conclusions and recommendations that would fast-track BB-BEE implementation across the various sectors; and
   
   
4. The development of a Vision 2020 statement for each sector.

The delegates concluded that the success of BB-BEE to date had been quite modest, and consequently, the consensus amongst some of the delegates was that it might be feasible and more realistic instead to frame a vision for 2025 rather than 2020, given the slow progress of BEE at the time, and in order to align with government planning.