Established by the National Empowerment Fund Act No 105 of 1998 (NEF Act), the National Empowerment Fund (the NEF) is a driver and thought-leader in promoting and facilitating black economic participation by providing financial and non-financial support to black-owned and managed businesses, and by promoting a culture of savings and investment among black people.
The NEF is a catalyst for Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (B-BBEE) in South Africa. We promote, enable, implement, and develop innovative investment and transformation solutions to advance sustainable black economic participation in the economy.
The NEF leverages various funds and funding instruments to provide finance ranging from R250 000 to R75m.
Programmes:
Women Empowerment Fund (WEF) - The NEF Women Empowerment Fund is aimed at accelerating the provision of funding to businesses owned by black women. The funding starts from R250 000 to R75 million across a range of sectors, for start-ups, expansions, and equity acquisition purposes. Read More
Imbewu Fund:
This Fund is designed to support black entrepreneurs wishing to start new businesses as well support existing black-owned enterprises with expansion capital.
The Fund supports these entities by offering debt, quasi-equity and equity finance products with the funding threshold ranging from a minimum of R250 000 to a maximum of R15 million focused on the following products:
• Entrepreneurship Finance
• Procurement Finance
• Franchise Finance Read More
Umnotho Fund:
This Fund is designed to improve access to BEE capital and has five products with funding ranging from R2 million to R50 million.
It is focused on Acquisition Finance, Project Finance, Expansion Finance, Capital Markets Fund, and Liquidity and Warehousing. These products provide capital to black-owned and managed enterprises, black entrepreneurs who are buying equity shares in established black and white owned enterprises, starting new ventures, expanding existing businesses and BEE businesses that are or wish to be listed on the JSE. Read More
