It has been said that life isn’t a matter of milestones, but of moments. But the National Empowerment Fund cannot be faulted for celebrating reaching the R1-billion mark in its pursuit of “the empowerment dividend”.

Last week’s R19-million funding of a BEE consortium led by East London Industrial Development Zone chairman Zolile Tini, to acquire 50 percent of advertising company Set Squared, might have seemed insignificant.

But it took the total funds disbursed by the NEF since its formation in 2004 to R1.3-billion.

Frencel Gillion, chief investment officer of the NEF, said the approval of R1.3-billion in BEE transactions was an achievement in the fund’s commitment to grow broad- based black economic empowerment.

“This important accomplishment further demonstrates the NEF’s commitment to contributing meaningfully to black economic participation and indirectly to [the government’s Accelerated Shared Growth Initiative for South Africa] initiatives,” said Gillion.

He said the fund prioritised investments in key sectors such as transportation, tourism and entertainment, ICT and media, food and agri-processing, construction and textiles, as directed by the department of trade and industry.

The NEF has to date approved 167 transactions, 74 percent of which are deals below R5-million, and 26 percent in deals above that amount.

Gillion said the fund would “maximise its efforts” over the next few months to ensure increased financing of SMEs, BEE transformation and rural development projects.

“With the recent debate around the effectiveness of BEE, it is important that organisations such as the NEF accelerate their efforts to ensure more people benefit from legislation that was specifically designed to facilitate economic transformation,” said Gillion.