The First Valuable 500 Africa Summit

The Valuable Truth 2022 report makes the reality clear. Corporate commitment to disability inclusion is uneven and fragile.

Only 54% of companies reported having a disability inclusion or accessibility policy, down from 58% in 2020. Executive sponsorship, a key driver of change, fell from 74% to 59%. Recruitment campaigns increasingly highlight inclusivity, yet almost half of businesses still cite staff awareness gaps and a lack of candidates as their main barriers.

Representation appears more often in marketing, but fewer than half of companies understand the needs of disabled consumers, and one in four are not investing in inclusive design at all.

The truth the report speaks to is that visibility has outpaced infrastructure. Companies want to be seen as inclusive, but many lack the systems that make change real: committed leadership, inclusive procurement, accessible design, reliable data and the trust required for disclosure.

The Valuable 500 was created to confront this gap. Launched at Davos in 2019, it set out to place disability on the boardroom agenda of the world’s most powerful companies. By 2021 it had reached its target of 500 members, making it the largest corporate coalition on disability inclusion. Its annual research has since tracked the journey, documenting both progress and setbacks, and reminding business that good intentions are not enough.

The first Valuable 500 Africa Summit adds a new chapter to this history. For the first time, African corporates, policymakers, funders and advocates will gather under this global coalition’s banner to shape commitments designed for African contexts. Employment structures, supply chains and cultural approaches to disability on this continent differ from those in Europe, Asia or North America. This summit creates the space to craft responses that reflect those realities.

The agenda will be practical. How to build recruitment pipelines that support disabled talent. How to open procurement systems to disability-owned enterprises. How to design products and services that are accessible across diverse markets. How to create data and disclosure frameworks that carry trust and credibility.

For GrowZA, being part of this process with Afrika Tikkun and Philanthrostrat is about connecting ambition with architecture. Convenings like this are rare. They bring leaders who do not often sit at the same table into one room, creating the possibility of commitments that are principled, measurable and lasting.

The first Valuable 500 Africa Summit signals that disability inclusion is becoming a priority for pan-African business. It also opens an opportunity: to turn inclusion into strategy, to design markets and workplaces that are broader and more resilient, and to show that Africa is not only participating in a global movement but helping to lead it.

What begins here has the potential to redefine how competitiveness and responsibility are understood across the continent in the decade ahead.

This is how we #GrowZA