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Cape Town – Nedbank [JSE:NED] walked away with the Top Empowered Business of the Year Award on Thursday, an award which honours the most pioneering South African company in the realm of transformation and empowerment.
Divisional executive for group transformation, Kershini Govender, told Fin24 Nedbank’s empowerment plan started 10 years ago in 2004 when transformation was identified as a key strategic business enabler for its broader business strategy and was CEO-led in its approach.
“Transformation at Nedbank transcends compliance and it is seen as a moral and business imperative. Our goal is to build a nationally relevant bank and to contribute to a better life for all in South Africa,” she said.
“We also aim to contribute to communities through socio-economic development initiatives, primarily in the education space... assisting with teacher training, grants for students to study, and supporting small businesses through additional mentoring and coaching programmes,” she said.
Nedbank scooped the award at the 14th Annual Oliver Empowerment Awards, which was held at the Emperors Palace in Johannesburg.
Stellar BEE performance
In a statement sent to Fin24 CEO of Topco Media, which runs the Annual Oliver Empowerment Awards, Ralf Fletcher, acknowledged the widespread use of the term empowerment, but said that behind it remained as important as ever.
“Empowerment makes a difference to every life it touches, offering upliftment to individual South Africans through employment, education, training and up-skilling.”
“And through such empowerment initiatives by forward thinking employers and businesses, such individuals can educate and inspire their children. It plays an imperative role in breaking cycles of the past and building our country,” he said.
Nedbank has been a level 2 contributor against the BEE code for the past six years.
The BEE Act allows for the existence of the B-BBEE (Broad-based Black Economic Empowerment) "Codes of Good Practice" which provide the structures for the BEE Scorecard and certain rules associated with claiming BEE points.
The points contribute to a company’s score level on BEE (from level 8 to level 1) depending on what contributions the company has made to supporting the integration of black people into the economy.
Some statistics according to Govender: “In 2005 the representation of previously disadvantaged groups in top management was 18% but in 2014 it was standing at 47%. Black senior management was 15% and is now 35%. Our black female board members in 2005 stood at 5% now they are represent 24%”.
