By Keamogetswe Toka, Chief Finance Officer, SayPro
Good [morning/afternoon], everyone.
It’s an honor to stand with you on this significant occasion—Global Accessibility Awareness Day 2025.
As Chief Finance Officer, I’m often asked: What does finance have to do with accessibility? My answer is simple—everything.
Because accessibility isn’t just a moral imperative. It’s a strategic investment. It’s about building a business that is inclusive, future-ready, and resilient. And at SayPro, we believe that how we allocate resources reflects who we are—and who we serve.
Over the past year, we’ve been intentional about aligning our financial systems with our values. Here’s how we’ve made accessibility a budgeted priority—not an afterthought:
- We created a dedicated Accessibility & Inclusion Fund to support innovation, retrofitting, inclusive procurement, and assistive technologies.
- We integrated accessibility benchmarks into financial risk and compliance frameworks, ensuring that exclusion is seen not only as an ethical failure—but as a business risk.
- And we have begun tracking return on inclusion, measuring how investments in accessibility improve customer satisfaction, employee productivity, and community engagement.
Why? Because the numbers are clear: inclusive organizations perform better. And more importantly, they do right by people.
But we’re not stopping there. I’m proud to announce three new financial commitments as part of SayPro’s 2025 accessibility strategy:
- Accessibility-First Capital Planning
Going forward, all major infrastructure, technology, and product development budgets will include built-in accessibility assessments and costings—from the start, not as a retrofit. - Inclusive Procurement Policy
We are expanding our vendor criteria to prioritize partners who share our accessibility values—because inclusion must flow through our entire supply chain. - Transparent Reporting
Starting this year, SayPro will publish annual accessibility investment reports—highlighting how, where, and why we spend on inclusion—ensuring transparency, accountability, and trust.
Accessibility isn’t a cost—it’s an opportunity. An opportunity to reach more people, serve more communities, and demonstrate leadership in a world that’s increasingly demanding both innovation and integrity.
On GAAD 2025, I want to challenge my fellow finance leaders—inside and outside SayPro—to ask:
Are we funding the future we say we believe in?
Are our budgets as inclusive as our mission?
Are we investing in equity—not just efficiency?
At SayPro, we are. And we will continue to do so.
Because in the end, the real bottom line is this: everyone deserves access. Everyone deserves opportunity. And everyone deserves to be included in the economy of the future.
Thank you—and let’s keep building that future together.
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