ECIC IR 2023

Integrated Report 2023

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• Identifying possible strategies that could be employed to resolve problems on an individual and national level.

contributing towards poor economic performance, loss of production and employment opportunities. Refer to the External Environment section on page 32 for more detail on the economic and political outlook of the Corporation. Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) issues ESG Policy The ESG Policy has been updated and it incorporates the key principles of the Equator Principles (EP4), which will guide ECIC in assessing ESG risks on potential transactions or projects to be underwritten and/or underwritten by ECIC. Of importance to note, the updated ESG Policy provides amongst others, the following: • The Environmental and Social Impact (ESI) Policy for Supported Transactions has been updated to include Environmental, Social and Governance issues. Governance has been added throughout the document; • Aspects dealing with “Sensitive Areas” have been defined and how those are being considered as part of Biodiversity Assessment and Management; • Human Rights assessment has been incorporated in the policy; • Climate change assessment, disclosure and reporting requirements; • Site visits for Category A and B projects process; • An example/list and definition of what is Project Related and Non-Project Related transactions is defined and how to deal with the outcome of the screening; • Stakeholder engagement on Free, Prior and Informed Consent of Indigenous Peoples affected by a project; • A sample of information required for ESG evaluation for both Project Related and Non Project Related is highlighted; • An Exclusion List is contained in the policy, this deals with the list of activities that ECIC may not support; and • ECIC stance on Coal is included which is in line with RSA Government stance.

Stakeholder Feedback During the 2022/23 financial year, the Corporation conducted 2 critical stakeholder surveys: 1. C orporate Reputation Index Performance (CRIP) Survey; and 2. C ulture Entropy Survey The outcomes of these surveys are detailed in the Stakeholder Section on page 62. During the 2023/24 financial year, the Corporation will conduct its biennial Employee Engagement Survey, and track the effectiveness of the AfCFTA media campaign through a Click-Through-Rate measure. Economic and political outlook The global economy is still making a slow recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic taking cognisance of the impact of the Ukraine and Russia conflict which still looms large. On the African continent, sovereign governments are facing fiscal challenges, which amongst others, resulted from reprioritisation of financial resources to fund COVID-19 related expenditures in containing or managing the pandemic. ECIC is likely to face claims in Ghana, because of the Minister of Finance’s failure to honour its debt obligations. Ghana is currently in negotiations with its creditors seeking a debt restructuring and/or forgiveness in order access further disbursements under the International Monetary Fund (IMF) bail-out of US$3 billion. Zambia has also restructured its sovereign debt. Furthermore, South Africa has been experiencing acute power shortages which have significant impact on economic activities and is reflected in the low economic growth rates 0,6% predicted by the South African Reserve Bank and the IMF. The lack of secured energy generation capacity and supply is leading to small and medium companies facing closure and other companies looking for alternative power sources such as green or solar energy and other fossil fuels. All these factors are

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