NRF Achieves Level 1 B-BBEE Status

In what demonstrates its commitment to South Africa’s socioeconomic transformation objectives, the National Research Foundation (NRF) is delighted to announce that it has achieved a Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (B-BBEE) Level 1 rating. This achievement comes a year earlier against the NRF Board-approved roadmap to reach Level 2 by 2025.

“We are incredibly proud of this milestone,” says Mr Bishen Singh, NRF Chief Financial Officer. “Such an outcome is the result of a focussed and dedicated strategy achieved through extensive work premised on making a meaningful impact in society.”

The NRF is required by the B-BBEE Act to report annually to the B-BBEE Commission on its status and B-BBEE audit outcome. The organisation deliberately set out on this trajectory some five years ago, at a time when it was at Level 7. The incredible achievement follows its focus on the implementation of the NRF Strategy 2025, which is anchored on Transformation, Impact, Excellence and Sustainability (TIES).

The strategy encompasses the NRF Supply Chain Transformation 2025, another critical strategic and policy document that details the organisation’s transformative procurement framework. The implementation of this strategy proved important towards its B-BBEE Level 1 rating achievement. One of the strategy’s core objectives focuses on the sustainable development and empowerment of local Black businesses. It underscores the importance of not only increasing procurement from enterprises that are 51% or more Black-owned, but also contributing to their development and upskilling.

Commitment to enterprise and supplier development as well as socioeconomic development are key elements to achieving the B-BBEE Level 1 rating, so are organisational ownership, management and skills development. The NRF’s achievement is reflective of its directed transformational objectives on procurement and upskilling.

Furthermore, the NRF increased the number of women leaders within its ranks in order to impact positively on the management control element. The NRF currently has nine women Board members (out of 15); two women in the organisation’s Corporate Executive structure; and three women as managing directors of the South African Agency for Science and Technology Advancement (NRF-SAASTA), the South African Environmental Observation Network (NRF-SAEON) and the South African Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRF-SARAO), the latter three being NRF research facilities. As part of its 25 years anniversary celebrations, the NRF paid homage to its women leaders here.

Also notably, the NRF provides work opportunities for unemployed youth through the Youth Employment Service (YES) programme. This 12-month programme, run by NRF-SAASTA in collaboration with the Department of Science, Technology and Innovation (DSTI), provides young people with practical training; exposure and skills to help them enter the job market. The NRF is currently hosting its third cohort under this programme. Over 80 youth have so far been given work exposure opportunities through this programme.

Adds Mr Singh, “We remain committed to the Transformation Agenda in line with the country’s National Development Plan to reduce poverty, inequality, and unemployment. The efforts of the Supply Chain Transformation Committee and all internal stakeholders who have dedicated their time, effort and expertise to the realisation of this vision are lauded.”